<br >NTRODUCTION<br >Revolution<br ><br > s book is about the future.~Not some distant future<br >which we and our descendants can blissfully ignore， but<br >one which is imminent and whose progress can be<br >plotted with some degree of precision. It is a future<br >which will involve a transformation of world society at<br >all kinds of levels， and while taking place slowly at first，<br >will gather pace with sudden force. It s a future which is<br >largely molded by a single， startling development in<br >technology whose impact is just beginning to be felt.<br >The piece of technology I m talking about is， of course，<br >the computer.<br > Computers will be frequently mentioned in this<br >book， and while most people avoid reading or thinki<br >about them on the grounds that they are simply t<br >complex to understand， no technological knowledge<br >insight is going to be necessary to follow the argume~<br >presented. I have gone briefly into the history<br ><br >