At the edge of a new millennium
Like moths to a flame: the seductions of computers

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By Jeff Austin

Gregory J.E. Rawlins, author of Moths to the Flame: The Seductions of Computer Technology (MIT Press), likens mankind's relationship with computers to riding a tiger. "We're on a tiger, and the tiger is getting bigger and faster, but we've long since passed the point at which we could get off," Rawlins said.

Neither a doomsday prophet nor a techno-utopian, Rawlins, an associate professor of computer science at IU Bloomington, suggests that our best hope lies in maintaining our delicate balance on the tiger. In just under 200 pages, he vividly tracks the acceleration and effects of computer technology and charts some of the directions it will likely take within our lifetimes.

From perfected virtual reality to "smart" weapons to genetic engineering, Rawlins' vision of the future is, by turns, alarming, expectant, dreamlike -- and thoroughly compelling throughout.

"The answer to the question 'What is the seduction of computer technology?' is deceptively simple," Rawlins said. "It can be answered in one word -- power."

Power is indeed seductive, as evidenced by the slogans and advertisements of computer and software companies. But the attraction to technology is also in our genes. Technological development has been a part of mankind's evolution since the first caveman picked up a branch ignited by lightning or found that one kind of stone could be used to sharpen another.

Rawlins asserts that technology is so elemental that we don't even think about it in its proper context.

The problem is that our technology is now evolving at a pace never before seen by humanity. Already, baby boomers have witnessed a technological revolution equivalent to the Industrial Revolution witnessed by their grandparents.

"In microbiology, for example, the computers that make possible things like gene sequencing mean that one competent biologist today is the equivalent of 1,000 competent biologists from the 1950s," Rawlins explained. "And in 50 years, one competent biologist will have the capabilities of 1,000 of today's biologists."

What will be the consequences of the blistering pace of technological evolution? Rawlins grapples with questions of privacy, crime, economics, warfare, medicine and social stratification. The answers are elusive, but Moths to the Flame takes on the important task of posing questions often left behind by technology's relentless tempo.

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