Tips for Time Travellers

More about the book

Peter Cochrane, the head of the cutting edge research labs at British Telecommunications, is a leading visionary of the digital age. He takes us on a rollicking tour of the technological advances just ahead. This series of monologues - at once provocative, brilliant and funny - give a tantalizing glimpse of a future where the distinction between humans and computers, between carbon and silicon, is rapidly converging. Our microchip enhanced brains will have to find new ways to interface with computers that can replicate human thought processes. Our mechanically augmented bodies will compete for work with sophisticated robots. In Tips for Time Travelers, Cochrane takes us on a wide-ranging expedition that explores what technology has done for (and to) us, why it sometimes falters, and where it will inevitably take us. In the near future we should expect holographic video-conferencing that makes business travel obsolete; a "virus" that acts as a universal translator between computer systems; and other practical applications that will make innumerable small but important changes in the way we live and do business.