Microcosm: The Quantum Revolution In Economics And Technology
Gilder connects his fascination with the computer as a savior of the conservative ethic with his mystical economic theories (as in his Wealth and Poverty , LJ 3/1/81) in this densely written account of the "microcosm" of computer technology, where innovations are occurring in the design of smaller and smaller computer chips. The first sections are largely a history of entrepreneurial goings-on in Silicon Valley; Gilder spent much time with the players, and seems to understand this murky world. If only he could tell us : The prose is often turgid or acronym-laden and unintelligible. The economics come at the end, where Gilder prophesies, broadly, that when we finally get the billion-transistor chip, the world's problems and conflicts will evaporate. This is Gilder's old ideological tract, gussied up in silicon, with scalding indictments of anything that isn't "entrepreneurial," i.e., unregulated, and of the old thinking that caused all the problems in the first place.- Mark L. Shelton, Columbus, OhioCopyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.