Tech Fails: When Innovation Goes Wrong.

Vaclav Smil's new book, "Invention and Innovation: A Brief History of Hype and Failure," highlights the limits of innovation by focusing on inventions that failed due to unforeseen or ignored downsides, promises that didn't materialize as hoped, promises whose fulfillment is still awaited, and overtouted but infeasible promises. Smil blames our techno-optimism on the rapid progress in electronics and computing, which has warped our expectations. He argues that we don't need radical new inventions to improve people's lives, but rather incremental progress in areas such as agriculture, transportation, energy use and storage, and drug discovery.