Overview

Computers, we love them and we curse them. No matter what we think about them, we know they have changed the world irrevocably. They have allowed us to make surprising, fantastic and unexpected discoveries. They are serendipity machines. However, computers have also made our world and our lives more complex. From mobile phones to the Internet, we use them to cope with rapid change and global crises. But what of their social impacts, especially when it comes to personal privacy and the role of the Internet in the globalisation of terror? The Serendipity Machine helps us make sense of recent developments in information technology. It explains how innovations such as data mining and evolutionary computing deal with the complexity by exploiting serendipity. It looks at possibilities raised by new technologies of personal agents and virtual communities. And it examines the growing influence of computers in new fields including biotechnology, environmental management and electronic commerce. It also reveals surprising connections between computing and everyday life. What do handbags, platypuses and traffic congestion have to do with computing? Why is computing becoming more and more like electricity supply? And why do computer scientists increasingly look to nature for inspiration? The Serendipity Machine is an engaging and insightful trek through the new worlds of information technology with plenty of chance discovery on the way.

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9781865086552

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Reviews

A look at the unexpected consequences of the computer revolution. Green (Information Technology/Monash Univ., Australia) sees the key impact of the growth of computerization as being an increase not just in the quantity but in the complexity of information available. Comparing the capabilities of early computers and those currently in wide use, he estimates a 100,000-fold increase in data from the mainframes of 20 years ago to the desktop model he uses today. Even more radical growth is evident on the Internet, which 15 years ago was used almost entirely by academics and the defense establishment. More significantly, the ability to combine sets of data has increased, allowing the discovery of hitherto unexpected relationships and also creating a new degree of complexity. Computer design has developed tools to help users handle this complexity; one such tool, for example, is modularity, the breaking-down of complex tasks into smaller subroutines, not unlike filing systems that sort data first by broad categories, then by narrower ones. A similar principle allows passing messages over large networks in an economical number of steps. The linear arrangement of data characteristic of the book is no longer necessary for computers, which can easily find connections between randomly sorted data. An example is data mining, or the use of computers to discover relationships in a vast quantity of data-say, analyzing computerized checkout records in grocery stores to find individual customers' buying patterns. Similarly, biotechnology has bloomed as computers have made it possible to analyze genetic data, with results both positive (as in new therapies) and ethically nightmarish (as in cloning). Likewise, the global village created by the Internet creates opportunities both for increased understanding and for increased crime, from Nigerian e-mail scams to massive terrorist attacks. While Green is clearly a cybernetic booster, he doesn't duck hard questions. Sometimes stiff, but should reward thoughtful readers. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

David Green is Professor of Information Technology at Research at Austalia s Monash University. He has an international reputation in the new field of complexity and has published widely in the area, including Patterns in the Sand: Computers, Complexity and life (Allen + Unwin, 1998) which he co-authored.

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