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High Tech High Touch: Technology and Our Search for Meaning
From John Naisbitt, the preeminent social forecaster of our time and the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Megatrends , a remarkable examination of the role technology plays in our accelerated search for meaning.
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.
It is technology's saturation of American society--with its fabulous innovations and its devastating consequences--that John Naisbitt and his coauthors Nana Naisbitt and Douglas Philips explore in this important and timely book. By conciously examining our relationship with technology as consumers of products, media, and emerging genetic technologies, we can learn to become aware of the impact technology will have on our daily lives, our children, our religiosity, our arts, and our humanness. High Tech/High Touch is a cautionary tale that shows us how to make the most of technology's benefits while minimizing its detrimental effects on our culture.
In a compelling tour of our technological immersion as we work and play and search for a spiritual path, Naisbitt tackles complex Does technology free us from constraints of the physical world, or does it tie us down to our machines? Does it save us time in our day-to-day lives, or does it merely create a void we feel compelled to fill with even more tasks and responsibilities? What about advances in biotechnology? Recent developments in genetic engineering now raise the possibility of a future that will someday be free of the birth defects, disabilities, and diseases that mark our lives today. But in an age where such things are possible, what is natural and what is artificial? And when people can be created in the laboratory as easily as in the womb, what, then, does it truly mean to be human?
Moving from the information and machine technologies of computers, the Internet, and telecommunications to the genetic technologies that are transforming biological science and art, High Tech/High Touch reveals the emerging power we have over our destinies--and the need for a moral compass to guide us. An ideal book to usher in a century in which these issues will become even more timely, High Tech/High Touch deftly explores the world we are creating and the world that is to come.
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.
It is technology's saturation of American society--with its fabulous innovations and its devastating consequences--that John Naisbitt and his coauthors Nana Naisbitt and Douglas Philips explore in this important and timely book. By conciously examining our relationship with technology as consumers of products, media, and emerging genetic technologies, we can learn to become aware of the impact technology will have on our daily lives, our children, our religiosity, our arts, and our humanness. High Tech/High Touch is a cautionary tale that shows us how to make the most of technology's benefits while minimizing its detrimental effects on our culture.
In a compelling tour of our technological immersion as we work and play and search for a spiritual path, Naisbitt tackles complex Does technology free us from constraints of the physical world, or does it tie us down to our machines? Does it save us time in our day-to-day lives, or does it merely create a void we feel compelled to fill with even more tasks and responsibilities? What about advances in biotechnology? Recent developments in genetic engineering now raise the possibility of a future that will someday be free of the birth defects, disabilities, and diseases that mark our lives today. But in an age where such things are possible, what is natural and what is artificial? And when people can be created in the laboratory as easily as in the womb, what, then, does it truly mean to be human?
Moving from the information and machine technologies of computers, the Internet, and telecommunications to the genetic technologies that are transforming biological science and art, High Tech/High Touch reveals the emerging power we have over our destinies--and the need for a moral compass to guide us. An ideal book to usher in a century in which these issues will become even more timely, High Tech/High Touch deftly explores the world we are creating and the world that is to come.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published October 19, 1999
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231 people want to read
About the author
John Naisbitt
59 books63 followersAfter serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and after finishing his studies in at Utah, Cornell and Harvard, he worked as an executive in the coporate world, was called to be Assistant Secretary of Education under President Kennedy when he was 34, and worked as Special Assistant for President Johnson. He has witnessed America going throubled times and good times.
He has traveled the world since the late 1960s, keeping in close touch with corporations and people in many fields of endeavor. He has spoken to virtually every major corporation, to many several times. His cultural life and residence in the United States, Europe and now China keeps him in direct in touch with a changing economic environment -- experience that is reflected in the books he has written.
His international bestseller Megatrends sold more than 9 million copies and was on the New York Times bestsellerlist for more than two years, mostly as number one. John Naisbitt published the international bestsellers Re-inventing the Corporation in 1985, Megatrends 2000 in 1990, which was published in 32 countries and was the Number One bestseller in the U.S., Japan, and Germany, and Megatrends for Women in 1992 (co-authored with Patricia Aburdene). His Japanese language book, Japan's Identity Crisis, was released in 1992 and was a bestseller in Japan.
His 1994 book, Global Paradox, received England's World Review Award for The Best Book of The Year. Megatrends Asia 1995, was a bestseller in the German language and in Asia. High Tech High Touch, was published in the fall of 1999 and has since been published in 17 countries. His last book Mind Set! was published in 42 countries. The Wall Street Journal called his work “triumphantly useful…taking bearings in all directions and giving us the courage to do the same.”
* Studied at Harvard, Cornell and Utah Universities
* Former executive with IBM and Eastman Kodak
* Assistant Secretary of Education to President Kennedy
* Special Assistant to President Johnson
* Former visiting fellow at Harvard University, visiting professor at Moscow State University, and current faculty member at the
* Nanjing University in China
* Distinguished International Fellow, Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS), Malaysia -- the first non-Asian to hold this appointment
* Recipient of 15 honorary doctorates in the humanities, technology and science
Source: His Official Web page
He has traveled the world since the late 1960s, keeping in close touch with corporations and people in many fields of endeavor. He has spoken to virtually every major corporation, to many several times. His cultural life and residence in the United States, Europe and now China keeps him in direct in touch with a changing economic environment -- experience that is reflected in the books he has written.
His international bestseller Megatrends sold more than 9 million copies and was on the New York Times bestsellerlist for more than two years, mostly as number one. John Naisbitt published the international bestsellers Re-inventing the Corporation in 1985, Megatrends 2000 in 1990, which was published in 32 countries and was the Number One bestseller in the U.S., Japan, and Germany, and Megatrends for Women in 1992 (co-authored with Patricia Aburdene). His Japanese language book, Japan's Identity Crisis, was released in 1992 and was a bestseller in Japan.
His 1994 book, Global Paradox, received England's World Review Award for The Best Book of The Year. Megatrends Asia 1995, was a bestseller in the German language and in Asia. High Tech High Touch, was published in the fall of 1999 and has since been published in 17 countries. His last book Mind Set! was published in 42 countries. The Wall Street Journal called his work “triumphantly useful…taking bearings in all directions and giving us the courage to do the same.”
* Studied at Harvard, Cornell and Utah Universities
* Former executive with IBM and Eastman Kodak
* Assistant Secretary of Education to President Kennedy
* Special Assistant to President Johnson
* Former visiting fellow at Harvard University, visiting professor at Moscow State University, and current faculty member at the
* Nanjing University in China
* Distinguished International Fellow, Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS), Malaysia -- the first non-Asian to hold this appointment
* Recipient of 15 honorary doctorates in the humanities, technology and science
Source: His Official Web page
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 22, 2013
Liked the book and suggestions, oddly enough this was recommended by a friend who talks the talk but does not walk the walk. The tips are only good if you actually do them.
October 29, 2019
185 pages of unadulterated techno-pessimism lamenting how techology is ruining the world. Of course dated by now, and without providing any solutions short of throwing away all your tech and going living in a cabin in the woods. The redeeming feature that saves this diatribe from one star is the last chapter on how modern artworks use and comment on technology. The interesting concept of high tech/high touch was apparently exhausted in Naisbitt's "Megatrends." Not recommended.
March 6, 2019
Wow! nodding all the way through!
March 1, 2017
This is the first book I've deliberately decided not to finish.
July 9, 2007
buku ini meceritakan tentang kemajuan teknologi khususnya IT yang mempengaruhi sosial budaya di Amerika.
Naisbit menyatakan ada korelasi antara film-film kekerasan dan game yang berbau kekerasan terhadap serangkaian tragedi pembunuhan massal oleh anak2 dan orang dewasa di Amerika.
bisa jadi tragedi virginia tech yang lalu juga ada kaitan dengan uraian nasibit ini.
Naisbit menggugat industri televisi bertanggung jawab terhadap kerusakan moral yang cenderung pada kekerasan.
di Indonesia sendiri gejala tersebut ada. mungkin kita tinggal menunggu rentetan tragedi saja :(. atau sudah sering terjadi?
Naisbit menyatakan ada korelasi antara film-film kekerasan dan game yang berbau kekerasan terhadap serangkaian tragedi pembunuhan massal oleh anak2 dan orang dewasa di Amerika.
bisa jadi tragedi virginia tech yang lalu juga ada kaitan dengan uraian nasibit ini.
Naisbit menggugat industri televisi bertanggung jawab terhadap kerusakan moral yang cenderung pada kekerasan.
di Indonesia sendiri gejala tersebut ada. mungkin kita tinggal menunggu rentetan tragedi saja :(. atau sudah sering terjadi?
May 4, 2013
This book is terrible. I strongly recommend against reading it. I was unable to get through the whole book.
The work is disorganized, written in a random organization. It doesn't make clear what its points are. It makes various aggrandized claims of problems with limited evidence, and even less explanations what to change.
The book includes lots of anecdotes from a range of people. It fails to clearly tie them to a narrative, to put them into context. Even the good anecdotes are often put into a context that implies they are very scary without any justification.
When I was fed up I tried to skip to the end to find conclusions, but those that exist are spread out and hard to find.
The work is disorganized, written in a random organization. It doesn't make clear what its points are. It makes various aggrandized claims of problems with limited evidence, and even less explanations what to change.
The book includes lots of anecdotes from a range of people. It fails to clearly tie them to a narrative, to put them into context. Even the good anecdotes are often put into a context that implies they are very scary without any justification.
When I was fed up I tried to skip to the end to find conclusions, but those that exist are spread out and hard to find.
July 3, 2007
probably applicable to the DOT COM moment we had :)
January 27, 2008
A very interesting book about the how technology has been affecting our life and culture.
March 24, 2008
cukup bagus untuk referensi
September 2, 2008
Respect!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews