America's high-tech companies do not have to look back: they know the Japanese are coming. U.S. computer-chip manufacturers, concerned that their survival is threatened, have gone to Congress for protection. And fear is rising that if the chipmakers go down, it will be only a matter of time before Japan overtakes the U.S. in the computer business. That would put an end to America's high-tech supremacy.
But are such apocalyptic visions justified? Not at all, argues conservative pundit George Gilder in his new book, Microcosm: The Quantum Revolution in Economics and Technology (Simon & Schuster; $19.95), a lively look at the...