Chapter 1. Introduction

第一章 概述

Each of the past three centuries has been dominated by a single technology. The 18th century was the era of the great mechanical systems accompanying the Industrial Revolution. The 19th century was the age of the steam engine. During the 20th century, the key technology was information gathering, processing, and distribution. Among other developments, we saw the installation of worldwide telephone networks, the invention of radio and television, the birth and unprecedented growth of the computer industry, and the launching of communication satellites.

在过去的三个世纪中，每个世纪都有一种占主导地位的技术。18世纪伴随工业革命的到来，开辟了大机器系统的纪元。19世纪是蒸气机时代。20世纪（在20世纪的发展过程中），主要的技术是信息收集、加工及分类。在这个时代的其他一些发展中，我们看到世界范围内电话网络的安装，无线电广播及电视的发明，计算机产业的诞生及空前发展，还有通信卫星的发射。

As a result of rapid technological progress, these areas are rapidly converging and the differences between collecting, transporting, storing, and processing information are quickly disappearing. Organizations with hundreds of offices spread over a wide geographical area routinely expect to be able to examine the current status of even their most remote outpost at the push of a button. As our ability to gather, process, and distribute information grows, the demand for ever more sophisticated information processing grows even faster.
随着技术的快速发展（作为技术快速发展的一个直接结果是） ，这些领域迅速融合，信息采集、存贮及处理之间的差异很快消失（正在很快消失）。对于具有数百个办公室的大型组织来说，尽管这些办公室分布在广阔的地理区域中，但未来期望的情景是，工作人员只需单击一下按钮，就可查到最远处发布的状态随着我们信息收集、加工及分类能力的增长，这种对更为复杂的信息加工的永久需求得到更快的增长。