Kevin Kelly's TED talk is well worth watching: <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_kelly_tells_technology_s_epic_story.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_kelly_tells_technology_s_epic...</a>
I haven't read the book yet, but presumably you can get a taste of it from his blog: <a href="http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/" rel="nofollow">http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/</a>