Book Review: The Information, by James Gleick
We are all living in the first generations of a new world. The world has already changed. Some would put the start of the change in 1860's, with the discoveries of the principles of electricity and magnetism. Some would put the start of the change after World War II. Maybe we could say that 1860 to 1950 was the childhood of our new age, while after 1950 we are full-fledge teenagers. None of us can recall how exactly we lived without cell phones and internet, even though most of us lived through land lines and libraries with paper books. Our understanding of space and time are different; our assumptions about connectedness are different; the surface of the planet is bathed continuously in complex microwave and radiowave energies, which, if we had the eyes to see it, we would now see that the surface of the Earth is now brightly lit up like Times Square 24 hours a day over its entire surface.
How did we get here? James Gleick continues to give us good reading material. He is tackling a history of, philosophy of, and commentary on the Information Age. The scope of his historical research is impressive - a never ending series of "wow, I did not know that."
I cannot agree with some of his statements about consciousness and thinking - for example that the Egyptians or Homeric Greeks were any less conscious than us because they lacked letters for writing. The arc of human history is very large, and certainly we can discuss differences between two cultures' thinking, concerns, understandings or questions. But this view of advancement of thinking is a tired, linear, Victorian-supremacist theory that needs to be discarded if we are to have any clear visions of human history. If our Age has actually gained any useful categories of thought not possessed by the ancient Greeks, then we have also lost useful categories of thought possessed by our ancient brothers.
The discussion of Babage and Lady Lovelace are just the sort of fascinating history that one wants. Sometimes we underestimate what is possible for our own lives simply because we are not aware of what other people have done.
The material leading to what we all know of as the telegraph is wonderful, tracing the origin not only of new technologies, but also the origin of new ideas. We have to be able to think it before we can use it. How many other latent inventions are out there right now, held up not because of the technology, but because no one can yet think a new thought.
I dislike the free assumptions about what individuals were thinking and feeling during their steps towards invention. Unless maybe Gleick found diaries from all these people. Otherwise I can do without the "Turing felt frustrated...", " Shannon knew this was his chance..." I was also disappointed by the final chapter on meaning. I am glad is included such a topic. But did not gather much of said meaning from the chapter.
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