书名：Invention and Innovation: A Brief History of Hype and Failure
定价：245.0
ISBN：9780262048057
作者：Smil, Vaclav
版次：2
出版时间：2023-02

内容提要：

发明与创新 2023比尔盖茨书单 瓦茨拉夫·斯米尔 英文原版 Invention and Innovation

基本信息

Format Hardback | 208 pages

Dimensions 152 x 229 x 22.61mm | 498.95g

Publication date 14 Feb 2023

Publisher MIT Press Ltd

Imprint MIT Press

Illustrations note 28 black and white illustrations

ISBN10 0262048051

ISBN13 9780262048057

页面参数仅供参考，具体以实物为准

书籍简介

★比尔·盖茨的喜爱的多产作者之一！

★来自《纽约时报》畅销书作者的新书，讲述了人类智慧的历史以及随之而来的突破和失败。

世界永远也追不上瓦茨拉夫·斯米尔的脚步。在他新颖的、也可能是富有可读性的《发明与创新》一书中，撰写了一部富有洞察力和充满事实的人类发明史的短途旅行。

斯米尔对经常伴随着创新的炒作感到不耐烦，在这本书中，他对从新的疾病治疗方法到人工智能等一切事物的过度承诺进行了清晰的纠正。他提醒我们，即使我们沿着发明-开发-应用的轨迹走了很远，我们也可能永远无法得到真正的东西来部署。或者更糟糕的是，即使我们已经成功地引进了一项发明，它的未来也可能以表现不佳、失望、消亡或彻底的伤害为标志。

斯米尔利用他广泛的科学和历史知识，解释了发明和创新之间的区别。然后他看了三种不同类型的发明：

①未能如约占据主导地位的发明。

·飞艇

·核裂变

·超音速飞行

②变成灾难性的发明。

·含铅汽油

·滴滴涕

·氯氟化碳

③我们长期以来一直承诺的发明（这将是非常有益的）。

·在真空中旅行（超高速铁路）

·固氮的谷物

·核聚变

末尾，他提供了一份 "愿望清单"，列出了我们迫切需要的发明，以应对二十一世纪的巨大挑战。

本书充满了引人入胜的例子和务实的方法，清醒地说明了人类的聪明才智往往伴随着愚蠢，以及我们如何能够而且需要更好地将我们的期望与现实结合起来。

From the New York Times-bestselling author, a new volume on the history of human ingenuity--and its attendant breakthroughs and busts.

The world is never finished catching up with Vaclav Smil. In his latest and perhaps most readable book, Invention and Innovation, the prolific author--a favorite of Bill Gates--pens an insightful and fact-filled jaunt through the history of human invention. Impatient with the hype that so often accompanies innovation, Smil offers in this book a clear-eyed corrective to the overpromises that accompany everything from new cures for diseases to AI. He reminds us that even after we go quite far along the invention-development-application trajectory, we may never get anything real to deploy. Or worse, even after we have succeeded by introducing an invention, its future may be marked by underperformance, disappointment, demise, or outright harm.

Drawing on his vast breadth of scientific and historical knowledge, Smil explains the difference between invention and innovation. He then looks at three different types of inventions.

Inventions that failed to dominate as promised:

AirshipsNuclear fissionSupersonic flight

Inventions that turned disastrous:

Leaded gasoline DDTChlorofluorocarbons

Inventions we have long been promised (and that would be highly beneficial):

Travel in vacuum (hyperloop)Nitrogen-fixing cerealsNuclear fusion

Finally, he offers a "wish list" of inventions that we most urgently need to confront the staggering challenges of the twenty-first century.

Filled with engaging examples and pragmatic approaches, this book is a sobering account of the folly that so often attends human ingenuity--and how we can, and must, better align our expectations with reality.

作者简介

瓦茨拉夫·斯米尔是马尼托巴大学的杰出荣誉教授。他著有40本书，包括由麻省理工学院出版社出版的《能源和文明与增长》。2010年，他被《外交政策》评为全球100大思想家之一。2013年，比尔·盖茨在其网站上写道："没有哪个作家的书比瓦茨拉夫·斯米尔更让我期待"。

Vaclav Smil is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He is the author of forty books, including Energy and Civilization and Growth, published by the MIT Press. In 2010 he was named by Foreign Policy as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers. In 2013 Bill Gates wrote on his website that "there is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil."

目录

1 Inventions and Innovations: A Long History and Modern Infatuation 1

2 Inventions that Turned from Welcome to Undesirable 19

3 Inventions that Were to Dominate—and Do Not 63

4 Inventions that We Keep Waiting for 107

5 Techno-Optimism, Exaggerations, and Realistic Expectations 151

Further Reading 185