Mirror Worlds: Or the Day Software Puts the Universe in a Shoebox...How It Will Happen and What It Will Mean (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780195079067)

Imagine looking at your computer screen and seeing reality--an image of your city, for instance, complete with moving traffic patterns, or a picture that sketches the state of an entire corporation at this second. These representations are called Mirror Worlds, and according to David Gelernter they will soon be available to everyone. Mirror Worlds are high-tech voodoo dolls: by interacting with the images, you interact with reality. Indeed, Mirror Worlds will revolutionize the use of computers, transforming them from (mere) handy tools to crystal balls which will allow us to see the world more vividly and see into it more deeply.

In this fascinating book Gelernter takes us on a guided tour of the computer technology of the near future. Mirror Worlds, he contends, will allow us to explore the world in unprecedented depth and detail without leaving the comfort of home. And he doesn't just speculate about how this amazing new software will be used--he shows us how it will be made, explaining carefully and in detail how to build a Mirror World using technology already available.

Author: David Gelernter
ISBN-10: 019507906X
ISBN-13: 9780195079067
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Language: English
Published: 01/28/1993
Pages: 256
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.69d

Review Citation(s):
Chronicle of Higher Education 12/04/2009 pg. 6