The End of the Future: The Waning of the High-Tech World (Praeger Studies on the 21st Century (Paperback))

represents The First Calm, Detailed, And Rational Description Of The Imminent End Of Western Industrial Civilization As We Know It.

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historian Of Technology Gimpel (the Cathedral Builders, The Medieval Machine) Argues That The High-technology Society We Are Led To Believe Can Only Expand And Accelerate For All Eternity, Is In Fact On Its High Plateau And Will Soon Begin Declining. Rather Unconvincingly In Some Cases And Rather Sloppily For A Scholar Of His Talent, He Proclaims The Failure Of Futurist Predictions, Personal Computers, Space Flight, High- Speed Air Travel, Synthetic Materials, Modern Medicine, And Unbridled Scientific Research. Along The Way He Castigates Environmentalists And Occultists. Only In The Last Chapter Does He Draw Parallels Between The Technological And Economic Cycles Of The Past And Our Own Situation. His Conclusion Is That We Had Better Start Making Friends With The Poor Peoples Of The World Because We Will Not Be Able To Dominate Them Much Longer. Translated From La Fin De L'avenir. Annotation C. Book News, Inc., Portland, Or (booknews.com)