Invention and Innovation: A Brief History of Hype and Failure

Invention and Innovation: A Brief History of Hype and Failure

出版日期:
2024/09/02
79
700553
查詢門市庫存
From the New York Times-bestselling author, a new volume on the history of human ingenuity—

內容簡介

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


Included in BILL GATES's 2023 Holiday Reading List
Included in Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2023
Included in The Next Big Idea Club’s February 2023 Must-Read Books

"Every Smil book that I own is marked up with lots of notes that I take while reading. Invention and Innovation is no exception. Even when I disagree with him, I learn a lot from him...he always strengthens my thinking."
—Bill Gates, Gates Notes

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, and looks not only at inventions that failed to dominate as promised (such as the airship, nuclear fission, and supersonic flight), but also at those that turned disastrous (leaded gasoline, DDT, and chlorofluorocarbons). And finally, most importantly, 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.

展開看更多

作者介紹

Vaclav Smil
Vaclav Smil is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He is the author of forty books, including New York Times bestseller How the World Really Works and Energy and Civilization, 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.

規格

誠品貨碼 / 2682578667007
ISBN13 / 9780262551014
ISBN10 /
EAN貨碼 / 9780262551014
頁數 / 232
裝訂 / P:平裝
語言 / 3:英文
尺寸 / 6 x 9 inches
級別 / N:無
提供維修 / 無

退貨說明

退貨須知:

  1. 依照消費者保護法的規定,您享有商品貨到次日起七天猶豫期(含例假日)的權益(請注意!猶豫期非試用期),辦理退貨之商品必須是全新狀態(不得有刮傷、破損、受潮)且需完整(包含全部商品、配件、原廠內外包裝、贈品及所有附隨文件或資料的完整性等)。
  2. 請您以送貨廠商使用之包裝紙箱將退貨商品包裝妥當,若原紙箱已遺失,請另使用其他紙箱包覆於商品原廠包裝之外,切勿直接於原廠包裝上黏貼紙張或書寫文字。若原廠包裝損毀將可能被認定為已逾越檢查商品之必要程度,本公司得依毀損程度扣除回復原狀必要費用(整新費)後退費;請您先確認商品正確、外觀可接受,再行拆封,以免影響您的權利;若為產品瑕疵,本公司接受退貨。

依「通訊交易解除權合理例外情事適用準則」,下列商品不適用七日猶豫期,除產品本身有瑕疵外,不接受退貨:

  1. 易於腐敗、保存期限較短或解約時即將逾期。(如:生鮮蔬果、乳製品、冷凍冷藏食材、蛋糕)
  2. 依消費者要求所為之客製化給付。(如:客製印章、鋼筆刻字)
  3. 報紙、期刊或雜誌。
  4. 經消費者拆封之影音商品或電腦軟體。
  5. 非以有形媒介提供之數位內容或一經提供即為完成之線上服務,經消費者事先同意始提供。(如:電子書)
  6. 已拆封之個人衛生用品。(如:內衣褲、襪類、褲襪、刮鬍刀、除毛刀等貼身用品)
  7. 國際航空客運服務。

若您退貨時有下列情形,可能被認定已逾越檢查商品之必要程度而須負擔為回復原狀必要費用(整新費),或影響您的退貨權利,請您在拆封前決定是否要退貨:

  1. 以數位或電磁紀錄形式儲存或著作權相關之商品(包含但不限於CD、VCD、DVD、電腦軟體等) 包裝已拆封者(除運送用之包裝以外)。
  2. 耗材(包含但不限於墨水匣、碳粉匣、紙張、筆類墨水、清潔劑補充包等)之商品包裝已拆封者(除運送用之包裝以外)。
  3. 衣飾鞋類/寢具/織品(包含但不限於衣褲、鞋子、襪子、泳裝、床單、被套、填充玩具)或之商品缺件(含購買商品、附件、內外包裝、贈品等)或經剪標或下水或商品有不可回復之髒污或磨損痕跡。
  4. 食品、美容/保養用品、內衣褲等消耗性或個人衛生用品、商品銷售頁面上特別載明之商品已拆封者(除運送用之包裝外一切包裝、包括但不限於瓶蓋、封口、封膜等接觸商品內容之包裝部分)或已非全新狀態(外觀有刮傷、破損、受潮等)與包裝不完整(缺少商品、附件、原廠外盒、保護袋、配件紙箱、保麗龍、隨貨文件、贈品等)。
  5. 家電、3C、畫作、電子閱讀器等商品,除商品本身有瑕疵外,退回之商品已拆封(除運送用之包裝外一切包裝、包括但不限於封膜等接觸商品內容之包裝部分、移除封條、拆除吊牌、拆除貼膠或標籤等情形)或已非全新狀態(外觀有刮傷、破損、受潮等)與包裝不完整(缺少商品、附件、原廠外盒、保護袋、配件紙箱、保麗龍、隨貨文件、贈品等)。
  6. 退貨程序請參閱【客服專區→常見問題→誠品線上退貨退款】之說明。
付款/配送

作者相關書籍