9781422280744

is rapidly advancing, and it is difficult to predict how these changes will affect society. In this book, we will look at the role digital technologies play in our lives and think about some of the questions that are raised by their development. We must consider complicated but important issues that do not necessarily have a “right” or “wrong” answer—for example, if there should be limits on what the Internet can be used for, whether smartphones are helpful or harmful to people’s relationships, and how those without digital devices are affected in this era. This book will not tell you what to think or which side of an argument you should be on. It will give you historical and technical background, expose you to current trends, and ask questions that will challenge you. Then you can form your own opinions, discuss topics with others, and be able to explain and defend your points of view. FROM THE INDUSTRIAL TO DIGITAL REVOLUTION The Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth-century was marked by a transition from hand-production methods to machine production, water and steam power, and the factory system. This led to enormous increases in available goods, services, global population—especially in cities—and rapid growth in technology and economies around the world. Productivity improved, and the more technology advanced, the less need there

was for expensive human labor. In contrast to the mass production of goods that came from the Industrial Revolution, the Digital Revolution brought the ability to transfer information instantly by shi ing from mechanical and analog technologies to digital electronics. The origins of the Digital Age can be traced back to the work of Claude Shannon, a mathematician from the United States who published a landmark paper in 1948 proposing that information can be quantitatively encoded as a series of ones and zeroes. He demonstrated that through this system, all information in media—including telephone, radio, and television signals—could be flawlessly

Digital information is stored in what is called “binary code,” consisting of the digits 0 or 1. Sequences of these digits (known as strings) can tell the computer or other electronic device to present a leer, color, or other piece of information in a certain place on the screen.

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