e-Sphere: The Rise of the World-Wide Mind

(Hardback)

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How will members of human society interact with each other in the new millennium Nothing less than that is the question that writer, teacher, scientist and futurist Joseph Pelton takes on in this provocative, challenging new book. We have moved beyond the "global village" envisioned by Marshall McLuhan, and are living instead in an environment of rapid-fire, non-stop instantaneous global communication - the e-sphere. The result is that we no longer receive information passively; in order to survive we must create and share it - and it is this fact that defines the new non-linear paradigm of the world for Pelton's 21st Century. The impact will affect every aspect of our lives, from employment to education to sex and family life. The stakes in adapting successfully to this world are of the highest order: the survival of our species. All this he explores in clear, engaging prose, well buttressed by research and his lifetime of thought. A study for people at all levels of today's organizations, and for those expecting to live in tomorrow's age of the "World-Wide Mind". Among the unique features of Pelton's book are: it offers new cyberspace oriented strategies for getting and keeping a job in the 21st century; outlines fundamental reforms to be expected in education and health care; and examines how business will be restructured and its practices altered in a cybernetic world dominated by information systems and services. Pelton also explores the expected loss of privacy, information overload, techno-terrorism and other "Teleshock" aspects of living. He provides a new understanding of the "social and economic discontinuities" that come from shifting to a non-linear world, where change comes in "jerks" and surges. He then lays out the need for a fundamental shift in economic systems that can allow the reconnection of production to consumption, one that will refocus our efforts away from simple economic "throughputs" and force us to revalue and prioritize economic issues with survival of the species uppermost in mind. Not only organizational decision makers but people in the academic and health care community should find much to think about here, as we all attempt to understand what this new millennium actually has in store for us, at least during

Reviews

"As broadband satellites and fiber zap us toward astounding terabit/second speeds that can download the U.S. Library of Congress in under a minute, Joe Pelton's e-Sphere: The Rise of the World-Wide Mind explores what life in the 21st century may really be like. Certainly, the World-Wide Mind' (or Internet X) can likely aid education, health care, telecommuting, industrial growth, advanced research and help bridge the digital divide, but Pelton's tough minded analysis suggests that we all need to worry about tomorrow's new age of homo electronicus! From information overload and loss of privacy to the 168 work week, from job deskilling to technological unemployment he wisely urges proactive steps to soften the impact of our advanced technology. His telepower--namely technological advance and productivity increases--has a flip side called tele-shock' and these downside issues cannot be safely ignored."-Conny Kullman, CEO Intelsat--The Global Satellite System
"In e-Sphere Joe Pelton had dared to grapple with the big question of humanity, will we survive our own cleverness Joe ticks off in great detail, the accelerating acceleration of change that we are experiencing, and indeed creating with our technological cunning. This is the e-Sphere. No aspect of life today, let alone in the new century, is untouched by our electronic, communication and space technologies, and for good and ill, this is just the beginning. Joe argues for the necessity of extracting wisdom from this turmoil if we are to survive as a species. Whether or not the requisite wisdom for human survival is implicit within, or even compatible with, the emerging e-Sphere, may not be answered by this book, but is certainly put into the front burner."-Astronaut Rusty Schweickart Commander of the Apollo 8 Mission Trustee Academy of Sciences for the State of California
"In the 1960s Marshall McLuhan helped us understand the importance of the emerging new electronic media and offered us the concept of the Global Village' but the rate of change only increases. As we start a new millennium, Joe Pelton suggest that the new paradigm is the newly emerging World-Wide Mind' and the start of a true planetary consciousness' that he calls the e-Sphere.'"-Sir Arthur C. Clarke Author of 2001: A Space Odyssey

Author Bio

JOSEPH N. PELTON is Professor at the Institute for Applied Space Research at George Washington University and Director, Accelerated N.S. Program in Telecommunications and Computers./e He is author of 15 books, and has received several major awards, including a Pulitzer Prize nomination. Former Chairman of the Board and Dean of the International Space University of Strasbourg, France, he is founding president of the Society of Satellite Professional International, senior member of the International Academy of Astronautics, and Director of the newly formed Arthur C. Clark Institute of Telecommunications and Information.