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Overview
In his visionary new book George Gilder brilliantly and persuasively outlines the sweeping new developments in computer and fiber optic technology that spell certain death to traditional television and telephony. In their places, he argues, will emerge a new paradigm in which people-to-people communications give way to links among computers to be found in every home and office. The rise of the telecomputer (or "teleputer") will utterly transform the way we do business, educate our children, and spend our leisure time, and will imperil such large, centralized, top-down organizations as cable networks, phone companies, government bureaucracies, and multinational corporations. The stultifying influence of the mass media will give way to the power of the individual and the spread of democracy - and all through a technology in which America leads the world. The paperback edition of Life After Television has been completely revised and expanded to include almost fifty percent material new to this edition. George Gilder's liberating book is now, more than ever, an essential tool for a richer, more prosperous future for all citizens of the Computer Age.According to Gilder, television, a centralized, authoritarian institution, is a dying technology, soon to be replaced by the telecomputer, a powerful, interactive system that will affect all aspects of life, from education to business to leisure time--a technology that will overthrow the stultifying influences of mass media and renew the individuals.
Synopsis
In his visionary new book George Gilder brilliantly and persuasively outlines the sweeping new developments in computer and fiber optic technology that spell certain death to traditional television and telephony. In their places, he argues, will emerge a new paradigm in which people-to-people communications give way to links among computers to be found in every home and office. The rise of the telecomputer (or "teleputer") will utterly transform the way we do business, educate our children, and spend our leisure time, and will imperil such large, centralized, top-down organizations as cable networks, phone companies, government bureaucracies, and multinational corporations. The stultifying influence of the mass media will give way to the power of the individual and the spread of democracy - and all through a technology in which America leads the world. The paperback edition of Life After Television has been completely revised and expanded to include almost fifty percent material new to this edition. George Gilder's liberating book is now, more than ever, an essential tool for a richer, more prosperous future for all citizens of the Computer Age.
Publishers Weekly
If Gilder ( Wealth and Poverty ) is correct, television will become irrelevant in the bright new interactive age of the telecomputer. A telecomputer is a personal computer adapted for video processing, and linked by fiber-optic threads to other telecomputers around the world. In an exciting, visionary glimpse of the future, Gilder conjures a global village where viewers can tap into any station or into newspapers, where people can transmit their own video images and access an endless feast of specialized programs. Scrutinizing the fledgling U.S. telecomputer companies and the massive resistance they face from entrenched interests, he predicts that the Japanese, already in the lead, will steal the show unless the American telecommunications industry mounts a coordinated effort. The age of the telecomputer may be decades away, but even couch potatoes will be stimulated by this thought-provoking essay. (June)