The Impact of Optoelectronics Technology on the Information Society

Abstract

A society in which the very existence of its members is intimately dependent on its ability to harness information can justifiably be called an “information society.” How optoelectronics technology will influence this society is a rather broad subject that cannot be discussed intelligently without first defining a restricted framework. We will start by putting some specific interpretations on the semantics of the terms to be used and then prescribe some boundaries both for optoelectronics technology and for the fields and activities whose impacts are to be measured. A semiquantitative measure of these impacts can then be presented.