The Future, According to Bill

March 1996 / Book and CD-ROM Reviews / The Future, According to Bill

Dave Andrews

THE ROAD AHEAD by Bill Gates, Nathan Myhrvold, and Peter Rinearson, V iking Penguin, ISBN 0-670-77289-5, $29.95
Bill Gates's The Road Ahead provides an interesting summary of the oncoming changes that the information highway will have on our lives. However, if you're looking for a detailed accounting of the author's life and times in the world of microcomputers, you will have to look elsewhere. And if you expect the chairman/CEO of Microsoft to provide definitive answers to some of the more difficult questions that face us, such as privacy, censorship, and equal access, you will also be disappointed. Gates admits he doesn't have the answers and--indeed--cannot even foresee all the futur e problems and opportunities the information highway will bring.
I suspect that the typical BYTE reader won't find anything too new in The Road Ahead . Gates speaks in generalities when he discusses important components of the electronic marketplace. But he has penned a good general travel guide for people who want to know where the information highway may take us. Government officials, educators, business executives, and anyone else who has resisted learning about the information highway and how it may change our lives would be well served by reading The Road Ahead .
Dave Andrews edits BYTE's News & Views section. You can reach him on the Internet or BIX at dave.news@bix.com .

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