FUTURE IMPERFECT, THE MIXED BLESSINGS OF TECHNOLOGY IN AMERICA, by Howard P. Segal, The University of Massachusetts Press, 245 pages, $15.95.

In a recent television ad, a British lass on a deserted seashore sweetly discusses the benefits of the information highway, perfectly natural, mere child’s play, demonstrating an optimism Howard P. Segal, professor of history and director of the Technology and Society Project at the University of Maine, contends may be a hallmark of an era that has ended.

In a series of case studies, including analyses of the automobile, computers and museums, and writings of Kurt Vonnegut and Lewis Mumford, Segal examines the relationship between technology and progress, pointing out that the results of that relationship do not always fulfill the optimism with which specific technologies are launched.

In his discussion of high-tech culture, Segal takes aim at the utopias of futurists, the “false nostalgia” of advertising, the obsolescence of world’s fairs, and the ironies of technological literacy, offering a word of caution: The future is neither predictable nor perfect, and the optimism of technological pundits may give way before a backlash of people blaming science and technology for not fulfilling its promises.

Segal appreciates the benefits of technology; he does not advocate a return to a simpler life. But how society measures progress, whether technologically or humanistically, becomes of paramount importance. In his book on the imperfect future, he provides a context for discussing what kind of technological society is desirable and affordable.

Invariably the future will not be the vision marketed by promoters.