The "information revolution" promises to trigger changes in society comparable with the massive shifts caused by two industrial revolutions, according to an expert who spoke Wednesday at the University of Utah.
Thomas Parke Hughes, author and professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania, added that alumni of the University of Utah computer science department are world leaders in the information revolution.Hughes delivered the annual Gould Distinguished Lecture on Technology and the Quality of Life, held at the U.'s Marriott Library. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His 1989 book, "American Genesis," was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in history.
Two previous social "revolutions" changed our lives immensely, from the technology used to make a living to attitudes about management and art, he said. They were the British industrial revolution from about 1750 to 1830 and an American industrial revolution, which focused more on a scientific approach, from about 1880 to 1940.
The new information revolution reflects many of the attitudes of the 1960s counterculture, as many of its leaders were growing up during that turbulent decade, he said. Laid-back, "hacker"-type attitudes, with their focus on merit rather than authority, have tremendous influence in the computer industry, he said.
"The information revolution, like the British industrial revolution and the American second industrial revolution, is centered upon particular places," he said.
"In the case of the industrial revolution, Birmingham, Manchester, Detroit became the milieu of innovation. Now, Silicon Valley, Calif.; Boston; Cambridge, Mass., become such milieus of the information revolution."
Computer technology is influencing art and architecture, he said. Imaginative art forms have developed, "among them computer graphics, including movie animation" and virtual reality, Hughes said.
The movie "Toy Story" was generated through computer animation, and architects are using three-dimensional computer modeling, he added.
Computer graphics techniques developed at the University of Utah in the 1960s and 1970s are at the heart of many of the innovations throughout society, he said. Hughes named these individuals from the U. computer science department as especially important:
David Evans and Ivan Sutherland. Evans founded the department and was its first chairman, 1965-73, and was co-founder with Sutherland of the famous computer graphics firm Evans & Sutherland. Sutherland is credited with inventing the first interactive graphics program with geometric constraints, "Sketchpad."
Alan Kay, who earned his Ph.D. at the U. in 1969 and went on to develop the notion of a graphical user interface at Xerox Corp.
John Warnock, Ph.D. 1969, founder of Adobe Systems.
Nolan Bushnell, B.S. 1969, who developed the Pong computer game and founded Atari.
Jim Clark, Ph.D. 1974, who founded Silicon Graphics and Netscape Communications.
Edwin E. Catmull, Ph.D. 1974, co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios, a pioneer in computer animation in such films as "Toy Story."
"If we reflect upon the history of the British and the American industrial revolutions, we find that the hallmarks of the industrial revolutions are in many fields of human activities," including managerial, social and cultural realms, Hughes said.
We should be prepared to shape the changes, he added, "so that we can . . . enhance the quality of life."