High Tech, High Touch: Technology and Our Search for Meaning - Hardcover

Naisbitt, John; Naisbitt, Nana; Philips, Douglas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0767903838 ISBN 13: 9780767903837

Verlag: Broadway Books, 1999

Inhaltsangabe

The author of the best-selling, prophetic Megatrends turns his vision to the relationship between technology and spirituality, describing the interplay between these two important trends and its role in changing science, war, religion, commerce, art, communications, and entertainment. 100,000 first printing.

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<b>High Tech/High Touch</b> is the result of an impassioned collaboration of a three-generation trio--John Naisbitt, his daughter Nana Naisbitt, and artist Douglas Phillips--and is unlike any other book John Naisbitt has ever written.<br><br>John Naisbitt, whose books have sold more than 14 million copies worldwide, has been accurately describing the future since 1968.  The recipient of twelve honorary degrees, Naisbitt is a former executive with IBM and Eastman Kodak and also served as a presidential appointee in the John F. Kennedy administration and as a special assistant to President Lyndon Johnson.  John lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Telluride, Colorado.<br><br>Nana Naisbitt and Douglas Philips, both writers, artists, and entrepreneurs, have worked on projects for Kellogg's, S

Aus dem Klappentext

isbitt, the preeminent social forecaster of our time and the author of the #1 <i>New York Times</i> bestseller <b>Megatrends</b>, a remarkable examination of the role technology plays in our accelerated search for meaning.<br><br>With American culture now being increasingly broadcast through technology--from TV and movies to music to the Internet and electronic games--we are living in what John Naisbitt calls the Technologically Intoxicated Zone. This zone is a confusing and distracted state where we both fear and worship technology, where we see technologies as toys and quick-fixes, and where we become obsessed with what is "real" and what is "fake"--from the violent games children play to genetically-engineered animals to whether one can claim to have scaled Everest if supplemental oxygen was used.<br><br>It is technology's saturation of American society--with its fabulous innovations and its devastating consequences--that John Naisbitt and his coauthors N

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What is High Tech/High Touch?

Because of the intrusive pace of technological change, High Tech/High Touch is far more crucial today than it was in 1982 when John first introduced the idea in the smallest chapter of Megatrends. Echoes of its increasing relevance led Douglas to suggest that John's next book be a reexamination of High Tech/High Touch, now considered by many to be the most important concept of that book. John agreed and welcomed the idea of a high touch collaboration among himself, his daughter Nana, and Douglas, both artists, writers, and entrepreneurs.

The first struggle was to come to an agreement about what the terms meant exactly-a task easier said than done, and one that evolved the more we learned. We began by asking, conceptually, what exactly is technology.

What is Technology?

The changing definition of the word is revealing. In 1967, in the Random House Dictionary, technology was defined as a thing, an object, material and physical and clearly separate from human beings. By 1987, when Random House released its completely updated unabridged dictionary, the word grew to include technology's "interrelation with life, society, and the environment." Technology no longer existed in a vacuum.

What is High Tech?

Even more revealing is the 1998 Tech Encyclopedia online definition of high technology, which expands the power of technology to include its "consequences." From thing to interrelationship to consequence. We now understand that powerful technologies have powerful consequences. Technology embodies its consequences, both good and bad. It is not neutral.

What is high tech? Menu. Mouse, bug, spider. Web, Net. Cookies, vanilla, apple, java, spam. Spew. Pilot, pirate, doctor, director, agent, server, provider, nanny. Chat. Domain, community, home, room, window, mailbox. Access. Boot, footprint. Glove, thumbnail. Navigate, browse, search, scan, zip, go. Location, address. Click. Bulletin board, desktop, briefcase, file, folder, document, notepads, page, bookmark. Smart. Scripting, scrolling, clustering, linking. Save, trash, recycle. Memory. Trojan horse, Orphan Annie, Mae West. Wildcard. Shortcut, overload, shut down. Log, link, surf. Keyboard. Tools, hardware, bits. Engine, backup. Virus. Wired, surge, connected, merge, purge. Crash. Shockwave, flame, ram, hit. Holy War.

What is high tech? www.technology.com. 3D, HDTV, HTML, HTTP, CD, DVD. MCI, IBM, AOL, Intel, Inspiron, OptiPlax, Omimax, Connectix, Teledesic, Xircon, Inprise. FYI, TBD, IPO, ROI, IT. IV, MRI, EKG.

What is high tech? Fire? Wheel, well, spear, loom, printing press, indoor plumbing, electricity, stoves, refrigerators, air conditioning, washers and dryers, cell phones, faxes, organizers, cars, high-speed trains, hydroplanes, bridges, tunnels, skyscrapers, supertankers, Mars Pathfinder, AWACs, JSTARS, space shuttles, particle colliders, nanotechnology, bioengineering, cloning, genetic engineering.

What is high tech? Ones and twos. Smaller, cheaper, faster. Real time. Quick time. Virtual, simulated, cyber. Interactive. Digital. Networked. Connected. Hardware. Software. Pixels. Resolution. Bandwidth. Convergence. Killer apps. Tech-cessorize. Voice recognition. Space tourism.

What is high tech? Future advancements, innovations, progress-control.

What is High Touch?

What is high touch? It's the look of an unknown three-year-old girl who turns suddenly to show you her sweet fresh face and flashes a smile that belies her stubborn personality, it's the love of your own child, it's panting for breath because the view was worth the climb, it's wanting to help your father because you notice that bending is now difficult for him, it's listening to the ever-constant rush of a creek, it's forgiving your friend who was mad at you for having a baby before she married, it's smelling a wide bowl of soup, it's longing for a lover, it's feeling god in your throat, it's sitting quietly, it's a lick on your face by a dog you once disliked, it's an idea that tickles your soul, it's a cold wind that burns your face, it's recognizing when you're wrong, it's crying at the beauty of a painting, it's a rhythm that beats in your bones, it's doodling and liking what you've drawn, it's gazing into the eyes of a nursing baby, it's feeling empathy, it's forgoing power to do what's right, it's acknowledging another person's place in this world, it's being respectful of a waitress, it's honoring a mother's depth of understanding, it's honoring a father's steadfastness, it's honoring a child's space to grow without fear, it's delighting in watching a thirteen-year-old boy find his way in a new community, it's giving of oneself to nature, to human emotions, to family, to the universe, to a higher power. High touch is embracing the primeval forces of life and death. High touch is embracing that which acknowledges all that is greater than we.

What is High Tech/High Touch?

It is a human lens.

It is embracing technology that preserves our humanness and rejecting technology that intrudes upon it. It is recognizing that technology is an integral part of the evolution of culture, the creative product of our imaginations, our dreams and aspirations-and that the desire to create new technologies is fundamentally instinctive. But is also recognizing that art, story, play, religion, nature, and time are equal partners in the evolution of technology because they nourish the soul and fulfill its yearnings. It is expressing what it means to be human and employing technology fruitfully in that expression. It's appreciating life and accepting death. It is knowing when we should push back on technology, in our work and our lives, to affirm our humanity. It is understanding that technology zealots are as shortsighted as technology bashers. It is creating significant paths for our lives, without fear of new technology or fear of falling behind it. It is recognizing that at its best, technology supports and improves human life; at its worse, it alienates, isolates, distorts, and destroys. It is questioning what place technology should have in our lives and what place it should have in society. It is consciously choosing to employ technology when it adds value to human lives. It is learning how to live as human beings in a technologically dominated time. It is knowing when simulated experiences add value to human life. It is recognizing when to avoid the layers of distractions and distance technology affords us. It is recognizing when technology is not neutral. It is knowing when to unplug and when to plug in. It is appropriate human scale.

High Tech/High Touch is enjoying the fruits of technological advancements and having it truly sit well with our god, our church, or our spiritual beliefs. It is understanding technology through the human lens of play, time, religion, and art.

From High Tech to High Touch

When does high tech become low tech, and, more dramatically, when does high tech become high touch? High tech becomes high touch with longevity and cultural familiarity. Today a wooden shuttle loom warped with yarn is high touch. Four thousand years ago in Assyria and Egypt, the loom was the latest advancement in technology. The spear, the wheel, the wedge, the pulley were all once high tech. In the 1920s, a radio encased in plastic Bakelite was considered high tech. Today it is high-touch nostalgia. Eight-track players (a '70s technology) are now collectibles, as are phonographs and the accompanying collection of great 45s, LPs, or cassettes. Older technologies become nostalgic more quickly as new technologies are introduced more rapidly.

Old-fashioned technologies become reference points for us all. They mark a certain time in our lives, triggering memories. They evoke emotion. High tech has no...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Broadway Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1999
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0767903838
• ISBN 13: 9780767903837
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 274
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar