This book is about the future of technology. In it we will examine some of the many recent

developments in a few key fields and try, in a limited way, to predict where they will take us in the next fifteen years or【46】______.

If that sounds like a modest goal, it's not. Technology is the【47】______(dominate) force of our time and probably of all time to come. It appears in more varieties than we can count. It changes so rapidly【48】______no scientist or engineer can keep up with his own field, much less with technology in general. It permeates and shapes our lives【49】______every turn. We ive in technology【50】a fish live in the sea, and we have only a little better chance of【51】______ (forecast) the details of its future changes.

Yet the task is well【52】w______undertaking. Whatever hints we can glean (一点点搜集) about the future win help us prepare for the changes to come. Modest forecasts, evidence of trends, a few concrete developments to be expected all are better than no warning at all. And【53】th______technology has made the present much less stable than the past, and surely will make the future more disturbed still, there is good reason to hope that our lives,【54】______sum and on average, will be better as a result. In an age of uncomfortable【55】chal______, this is reassurance (保证) we all can use.

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