The Road Ahead

• What is the information highway?
• How will the new technology change our lives?
• Do I have to learn to use a computer?
• Will my job become obsolete?

Welcome to The Road Ahead. We have all been bombarded by the seemingly endless hype about the information highway and the coming age of technology. Now Bill Gates — who built Microsoft into one of the most successful companies in the world — gives us his vision of what the future holds for us. The Road Ahead is his bird's-eye view of the undiscovered territory on the information highway — an authoritative, thought-provoking, and very readable travel guide for the journey.

In this optimistic and refreshingly realistic book, Gates looks ahead to show how the emerging technologies of the digital age will transform all our lives. As he says, we are on the brink of a new revolution, and crossing a technology threshold that will forever change the way we buy, work, learn, and communicate with each other. In The Road Ahead, Gates takes us back to when he chose to drop out of Harvard to start his own software company in order to participate in the rise of the personal computer he foresaw. Just as the personal computer revolutionized the way we work, the tools of the information age — which are, even now, becoming everyday reality — will transform the way we make choices about almost everything.

1. A Revolution Begins
2. The Beginning of the Information Age
3. Lessons from the Computer Industry
4. Applications and Appliances
5. Paths to the Highway
6. The Content Revolution
7. Implications for Business
8. Friction-Free Capitalism
9. Education: The Best Investment
10. Plugged In at Home
11. Race for the Gold
12. Critical Issues

First Edition! This means no references to the Internet. After having tried to read this book at least five times, I decided to skip it. Pure bull.