L'auteur, professeur à l'université de Californie à Berkeley, a enseigné dans le département de l'énergie et des ressources naturelles, puis s'est reconverti dans les sciences sociales. Une bourse de la fondation MacArthur pour la recherche sur la sécurité internationale lui a permis de se livrer à cette étude sur l'invasion des ordinateurs dans tous les aspects de la vie. Il s'intéresse à la manière dont l'informatique recompose le monde et la vie par ...

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Ce livre est issu des réflexions des organisateurs du séminaire « Information, communication et société » organisé conjointement par le Commissariat général du Plan et la DG XIII de la Commission européenne de juin 1995 à mai 1997. Il souligne que la transformation en cours sera beaucoup plus diversifiée et plus lente que ce qui est généralement prévu. Les auteurs encouragent les entreprises à utiliser systématiquement et sans délai tous les nouveaux outils disponibles. Ils conseillent d'appréhender les nouveaux services en ...

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L'ambition de cet ouvrage est de penser ce que recouvre et signifie la notion de réseau, qui parcourt le langage et les pratiques sociales de notre époque. Système organisé de connexions et commutations productives, le réseau incarne la méthode d'appropriation des ressources matérielles, sociales et humaines dans un environnement précaire, à des fins de rendement et de puissance, sans limite à son extension. Une première partie étudie la genèse anthropologique et culturelle des réseaux actuels : la révolution épistémologique ...

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Cet ouvrage est le bilan de vingt ans de recherches sur la communication, un des symboles les plus forts du XXe siècle. Il s'intéresse plus particulièrement aux rapports entre la communication et la société. L'idéal de la communication - rapprocher les hommes, les valeurs et les cultures - est en effet au cœur du modèle démocratique et semble triompher par l'intermédiaire de techniques de plus en plus performantes. Pourtant, Dominique Wolton considère qu'il est nécessaire de faire échapper ...

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L'ouvrage de Bernice Cohen examine de quelle manière la théorie du chaos peut être utile à la compréhension des phénomènes financiers mondiaux. Cette théorie, à première vue complexe parce que reposant sur un raisonnement mathématique qui n'est pas à la portée de tous, s'appuie pourtant sur deux idées de départ faciles à comprendre : un comportement soi-disant imprévisible, voire chaotique, est en réalité gouverné par des règles simples ; de très légers changements dans les conditions de départ d ...

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Internet and Global Development
Will the Internet, the greatest network ever for exchanging information and knowledge, put all the science of the world at the service of everyone, or will it on the contrary reinforce the gap between those who are already dubbed the "info-poor" and the "info-rich"?
Elie examines here the global distribution of Internet servers in relation to country populations and levels of development, as measured by Gross Domestic Product per capita and by the synthetic Human Development Indicator (HDI) devised by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
He shows that, in the same way as the curve of the JIPP reveals a strong correlation between telephone equipment and per capita GDP, there could be a worrisome correlation between the number of Internet servers and the level of development of countries. In other words the author submits the hypothesis that Internet tends to deepen inequalities. But he concludes that this global "techno-apartheid" could be avoided by an energetic and long-lasting political intervention.

Virtual/Reality: The Confusion of Meaning
Information and communications technology are developing very rapidly, integrating text, image and sound in multimedia (which include the so-called industries of simulation) to create the "real" virtual spaces in which we are more and more immersed. The immersion is so complete, Chantal Lebrun tells us, that the frontier between virtual and real runs the risk of disappearing completely, leaving us without the essential guideposts of space and time.
She warns us that the confusion between real and virtual is liable to give rise to some real crises of meaning, if not to full-blown insanity. She uses a psychoanalytic model to show how personality is shaped by the triangular dynamism among the real, the imaginary and the symbolic, pointing out how much it can be thrown off balance when the virtual is confused with the real, thus taking away the role of reality as filter to an unbridled imagination.

Computer Science at a Dead End? The Third Wave at the Crossroads
Buffeted on the supply side by extremely dynamic global competition and confronted on the demand side by less promising markets, could it be that computer technology has hit a dead-end? Have its margins been trimmed back so far that, like the good old industries of yesteryear, it has had to reduce the R & D expenditures which are indispensable if it is to get a second wind? Pierre Bonnaure sets up an alarmist picture of a sector which ten years ago was heralded as the engine of the third industrial revolution. But far from concluding that it is doomed to decline, he sketches some pathways at the crossing of which computer science could find a new life.

A Brief History of the Internet
Internet - whatever the hopes or fears that it inspires, and maybe because of them - constitutes without doubt today's most popular technological innovation (and the absolute must of the "in" crowd).
By briefly retracing the genesis and development of this innovation since 1945, Charles du Granrut shows how the concepts and tools were established and how by interlocking they gave birth to the Internet. On the upstream, he underlines the work of the pioneers and the cross-fertilization among their inventions; on the downstream he emphasizes the complex and rich relationship between man and technology.

Pen, Print and Pentium
Nicole Morgan reminds us here of the intense criticisism which was leveled at the invention of Gutenberg. Contemporaries charged that profit-motivated printing press operators would put hastily manufactured, faulty editions into circulation, that they would diffuse immoral texts outside the control of ecclesiastical authorities and that knowledge itself would be corrupted by divulging it to the ignorant.
While taking account of the controversy aroused by that invention, she draws a parallel in polemics which today are provoked by the rise of electronic communications. In the eyes of their detractors, these will substitute for the art of the writer a telegraphic language which will diminish individual creativity, impose a uniformity of spirit, and instead of informing will make people stupid.
In passing, however, she underscores the important power stakes that are involved and how much advantage can be gained by those who take advantage of the diffusion of thought. In particular, she reminds us of the critical role played by printing and publishing in the advancement of democracy.

Of Microchips, Books... and Men. The Digitization of Printed Material in the French National Library
The ruling princes of France have often dreamed up grandiose projects for her: witness the Louvre, Versailles and innumerable other monuments which constitute the exceptional patrimony of this country. At the turning of the 20th century, this same impulse built the Eiffel Tower and then launched, with unequal success, vast aeronautical, aerospatial and nuclear ventures. When a new civilization was announced, marked by the rise of information and communication technologies, we could do no less than offer to everyone all the knowledge accumulated during these centuries of light. (Official plan be damned ; the French Revolution obliges us!).
And so was born the project of building "the largest and most modern library in the world", which, thanks to digitization and teletransmission, could be consulted from every household; the venerable "Bibliothèque nationale" will then become the overseer of an intelligentsia infatuated with letters and high technology.
Julie Bouchard explains how, regardless of any thinking about, needs and purpose, the project of creating a "virtual library" was born, which, under the pretext of being exhaustive, coherent and universally accessible, might be open in 1998 for the benefit of a few researchers who are well trained in reading "intelligent terminals". She describes how, motivated by boundless ambition, technical choices were made on the digitization of documents, teletransmission and terminals which, at the end of day, compromise the patrimonial function of the BN and its accessibility.
This analysis, alas, shows all too clearly that modernity has meant escape into a future thought up exclusively by technicians for the glory of His Supreme Majesty: King Science.

La terre pourra-t-elle nourrir 8 milliards d'hommes en 2025, 12milliards quelques décennies plus tard, voire davantage encore dans quelques siècles ? La question demeure extrêmement controversée comme en témoignent les réactions suscitées par le récent rapport de Lester Brown annonçant la grande pénurie alimentaire de la Chine (Who will feed China ? Wake-up Call for a Small Planet. World Watch et W.W. Norton, septembre 1995). Joseph Klatzmann rappelle, en premier lieu, combien il est important de s'entendre sur les ...

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Il y a quelque trente ans, Rachel Carson publiait, après bien des difficultés, Silent Spring 2, un livre devenu un classique et dans lequel elle lançait un cri d'alarme quant à l'utilisation répandue et massive du DDT. Le mouvement dit écologique naquit ainsi au milieu d'une polémique : savants et experts attestèrent de l'innocuité du pesticide que certains allèrent jusqu'à ingurgiter pour servir de preuve. Ils nièrent jusqu'à l'évidence les milliers d'oiseaux morts ...

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L'informatisation de la société n'a fait que commencer, affirme J.-J. Salomon. Mais ses effets ont déja été considérables. Ils se sont traduits en Europe par une croissance continue du chômage et aux États-Unis par une aggravation des inégalités de revenus et une réduction des salaires. On surestime toujours la rapidité de diffusion des nouvelles technologies. Celles-ci ne se propagent pas au rythme de leur découverte, mais en fonction de la capacité des sociétés de les absorber. Ainsi ...

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L'essor des nouvelles technologies de l'information et de la communication (NTIC) donne lieu à de nombreuses publications et controverses. Celui des biotechnologies attire moins l'attention, alors qu'il n'est pas moins rapide et porteur d'enjeux importants. L'aptitude nouvelle que nous avons acquise de modifier le vivant de l'intérieur par transfert de gènes et reprogrammation génétique constitue à l'évidence une révolution porteuse d'espoirs et de craintes considérables eu égard à l'usage ...

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La répartition des savoirs et des pouvoirs de demain, tant économiques que politiques, voire militaires, dépend largement des migrations de scientifiques et d e techniciens. Cet aspect de l'internationalisation de la science a été analysé en détail dans une perspective à la fois historique et prospective par le sociologue Charles Halary, lui-même chercheur migrant travaillant à la fois en France et à l'UQAM (Montréal).

Le dernier ouvrage d'Alain Peyrefitte La société de confiance 2 est un vrai grand livre, d'abord par l'importance et l'actualité du sujet qu'il traite, mais surtout par la lumière nouvelle qu'il y projette. Il marque, comme l'a dit Pierre Chaunu, « une date dans l'histoire des sciences humaines ».

The Intelligent Freeway
Guy Maillard brings us the viewpoint of French autoroute enthusiasts who entertain high hopes for the "intelligent freeway".
He describes the type of services already available to car drivers through classic and modern channels, commencing with information about the flow of traffic.

In Favour of a Good use of New Technologies
In this article, Jean-Michel Bérard develops a point of view held by the Security and Traffic Directorate of the French Department of Transport.
He describes the advantages of information systems, especially from the point of view of security and efficiency of road transport. But he also underlines the risks of information overload or the use of badly designed terminals which could distract drivers.

McDonald's or the Revenge of Pearl Harbor. Obesity: a "Heavy" Trend Indeed
A third of the population of the United States is obese. And indeed, within the last decade, Americans have put on weight thanks to an intense advertising campaign by agribusiness.
As a result, pharmaceutical industries have a prosperous market selling thinness, which has become a North-American obsession.
Nicole Morgan describes in this article the appalling result of ruthless but complementary competition. The effect has spread to other countries such as Japan where, thanks to new ways of life and new food habits, some are denouncing what is dubbed as "the revenge of Pearl Harbor".

Highway Information in Real Time
Gérard Blanc, in his review of projects to develop "intelligent highways and vehicles " in France, reminds us again that the main issue is not channels and transmitters but the capacity to collect, process and broadcast information in real time at a cost which can be sustained by the market.

Merci, Monsieur Gates, de trouver le temps, malgré vos multiples occupations, de nous offrir une visite guidée de cette révolution informatique, à laquelle vous aurez imprimé une marque décisive.

A Highly Probable Future. 83 Hypotheses for 2025
Futuribles has kept well away from publishing futuristic assertions which were not carefully supported. In that respect we have always favoured an approach which points to possible futures, stressing the weight of the human factor in decision-making and choice of action rather than forecasts which imply a pre-determined future.
The following text is an exception to the rule since it states 83 forecasts for 2025. But Joseph Coates, who is certainly one of the best American forecasters, makes it clear that these are hypotheses put together by a group of experts, based upon a critical review of many forecasts elaborated since 1970.
Although not always convincing, this inventory has the merit of making us think, including some reflection on developments which are not immediately obvious but of which the impact could be important.

Is Tocqueville Really Outdated? About Ezra N. Suleiman's book "Les Ressorts cachés de la réussite française"
Ezra N.Suleiman answers in the negative. French society, he contends, does not suffer from any deep disease nor any specific blockage. These words are all the more stricking coming from a Princeton University professor (USA). Witness, moreover, the economic and social progress, only hampered by the organisation, training and practices of governmental elites (as well as the confusion between the roles of politicians and senior civil servants).
Nevertheless, replies Erhard Friedberg, we should not delude ourselves about "French success". Its modernisation is not finished yet and still stumbles against deep blockages and a certain organisational and managerial archaism. E.N. Suleiman tends also to see only the good sides when it comes to the role of the State, which has not been as positive as he thinks. And last, and as sharply illustrated in the social crisis of the Fall of 1995, the republican model which confers on a central State guardianship of society as a whole, must be radically rethought.

Cet article évoque l'avenir de la communication dans la société numérique. Le consommateur pourra bientôt adapter n'importe quel langage informatique à n'importe quel ordinateur. Un langage compatible avec Internet fonctionne sur un Macintosh, sur un PC, sur une station de travail. Ceci constituera une menance pour l'industrie traditionnelle du logiciel dans laquelle les programmes, les nouvelles versions et les améliorations sont développées pour un certain type d'ordinateur. Le futur consommateur achètera ou louera une partie ...

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