The Road Ahead by Bill Gates

A detailed Summary of The Road Ahead by Bill Gates

In his book The Road Ahead, Bill Gates relates to a non-technical audience the history, growth, and future of technology. He discusses how the trends, technologies, and issues of the Information Age are affecting society. Gates makes predictions and gives advice on how to adapt and succeed in the future of incredible change in computing and communicating. His book is written with two major concerns: the development and future of technology, and its influence on society.

Bill Gates begins by explaining how computers will be interconnected globally in what will be called the information superhighway. Of course the precursor to this network is the currently used Internet. The development and use of this interactive network is the main focus of the book. Gates uses the metaphor of the "ultimate market" to describe how all manner of human activity will take place in this market, with the medium of exchange being digital information of all kinds. Bill Gates states that the ability to change and manipulate information and the increasing speed at which is it handled places us at the beginning of an "information revolution." Since almost all information in the future will be digital, conventional communication devices will be alt

Bill Gates refrains from using technical vernacular and explains all computer terminology as he discusses it, making it clear and easy for normal people to understand him. He is convinced that this new technology will "enhance leisure time and enrich our culture by expanding the distribution of information." This, however, oversimplifies most issues and results in a dull, repetitive book for most experienced computer users. He succeeds in explaining his vision of the future and why he has chosen to switch Microsoft's focus to the Internet. Bill Gates optimistically looks ahead at the emerging tools of technology that will forever transform the way we buy, work, learn, socialize, and communicate and encourages us to help shape the future.

He dedicates a chapter to appliances and applications of the future. Video-on-demand, and other digital information stored on servers, will be available when residential broadband networks are installed. The cost for these networks is still extremely high, so it won't be available for at least a decade to the majority of the homes in the United States. This is an example of how general-purpose devices are replacing special-purpose devices. Video-on-demand will replace VCRs in the same way that telephone answering machines have evolved into voicemail. Gates feels that high-definition television will not catch on until the broadband network is in use, and so screens for TV and PC will improve in quality and that most will be flat-panel displays. Bill Gates goes into detail concerning an appliance called

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Approximate Word count = 1049
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous