Similar to my review of Digital Life by Michael Crichton, I was attracted to this book because it’s old, and I love seeing old predictions of how computers would exist in our life that predate their modern ubiquity. The problem however is that this book doesn’t get very much wrong! That’s partially because it doesn’t say very much, it’s a 50 page long large-print book for children. I can imagine if you were between the ages of 5 and 10 in the mid-80s, this book could have been revelatory.
The text is pretty straight forward: ostensibly you’re speaking with R2-D2, though there isn’t much character to show that. The book covers many questions related to how computers work, how they’re used in society, and how they will be used in the future. Really, the book does a good job of getting on top of predictions that would have felt like magic 40 years ago when this was published. It references how natural language will one day be used, and how computers will feel like we’re speaking with oracles or genies. Regardless of where you fall in thinking LLMs are magic vs. smoke and mirrors, that’s a pretty apt comparison! And unfortunately there’s not really much else to talk about; the book covers educational and military uses, but is sure to entice kids by talking about computer games as much as possible.
There’s no reason to read this book unless you’re a fellow computer enthusiast like me. But, if you fall into that group, why not? Give ‘er a read!