At the cutting edge

20th January 1995, 12:00am

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At the cutting edge

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/cutting-edge-4
The New Technology series, By Nigel Hawkes, Communications.0 7496 1703 9 Energy. 7496 1702 0, Medicine Health. 0 7496 1705 5, Space and Aircraft. 0 7496 1696 2, Structures and Buildings, 0 7496 1704 7. Transport on Land and Sea, 0 7496 1701 2. Watts Pounds 8.99 each.

Here is an up-to-date series of short books about hi-tech fields like communications, transport, medicine and energy. They are factual and descriptive, and steer clear of the gee-whizz approach. The facts are astonishing - looking through the books, one sees that science fiction has been overtaken by reality. Each topic has a double-page of text and illustrations. Communications, for example, has sections on glass-fibre optics, telephones, CD-Rom and Interactive CD, Satellites, TV and cameras, Networks, Virtual Reality and so on.

The cumulative effect of the books is to bring home the culture shock of how fast things are changing. Children will probably take it in their stride, but it should shake most adults with its picture of change affecting every sphere of life. Even if one is computer literate, the speed and power of the new machines - the transfer of immense quantities of data, simultations of reality, or interaction with an arguably intelligent machine - constitute a revolution in the way we do everything, from teaching to living at home.

The revolutionary pace of change is apparent in each area covered. The chronology at the end of each volume reveals the acceleration that is taking place. Medicine, for instance, shows that key-hole surgery is barely 10 years old; that the initial discoveries about DNA, by Crick and Watson in the early fifties, are producing an expanding flood of applications like gene therapy and new drugs.

Although these books do not give much help in choosing which paths to follow, it is useful to have a range of possibilities laid out. With a fundamentally important question like energy, we need to see the wide ranging options, from solar power captured in space, or wind and wave machines (but where are Salter’s Ducks?); to the high technology of fusion power. With such a range of alternative futures, the question arises: “How well are we equipped to make the right choices?” Would children fancy, for instance, the possibility of living in underground cities, outlined in Structures and Buildings?

Taken together, the books set the stage for anybody wanting a picture of the new technology which is already available, if not familiar, or else well on the way. They set the stage, but they leave a lot of questions to be discussed. As Nigel Hawkes remarks in Transport, the Maclaren F1 puts Formula 1 technology in the hands of anyone with Pounds 700,000 to spend.

A teacher would be able to use these books to set off interesting discussions. The books themselves focus on the technology, not the ethical and social implications which the new technology confronts us with.

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