William Sims Bainbridge (Editor) and Mihail C. Roco
5.0 out of 5 stars Ahead of Its Time, Still a Major Contribution, Needs a Second Volume, October 13, 2012
This is a truly extraordinary book, one I stumbled across as I was browsing the web for “the right stuff.” Whereas most authors and endeavors persist in doing what Dr. Russell Ackoff describes as “doing the wrong thing righter,” this is a book on the bleeding edge of what he and I both favor, “doing the right thing.”
What really surprised me about this book is the rich cultural and ethical spirit that has been integrated into each contribution (19 chapters, many with multiple authors). I am also surprised by the conclusion, chapter 19, “Coevolution of Social Science and Emerging Technologies,” which explicitly recognizes that the social sciences are severely retarded in relation to both the challenges facing us and the capacity of emerging technologies to address those challenges. This is a view I have held for some time, and if there ever were an Open Source Agency (OSA) as a sister agency to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and as an Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) provider to Whole of Government decision-making and Smart Nation depth and breadth, two of that agencies priorities would address the urgency of re-integrating all of the academic disciplines, and accelerating the maturation of the social sciences, while also applying the new meme of “Open Source Everything” to every one of the technologies addressed in this book.
