[electronic resource] :, 416 pages
English language
Published April 29, 2011 by Knopf Doubleday Pub. Group.
From the invention of scripts and alphabets to the long misunderstood "talking drums" of Africa, James Gleick tells the story of information technologies that changed the very nature of human consciousness. He also provides portraits of the key figures contributing to the inexorable development of our modern understanding of information, including Charles Babbage, Ada Byron, Samuel Morse, Alan Turing, and Claude Shannon.
A good book if you want to know everything about information from the concept of information to the history & development of theories and technologies. A real soup to nuts book. One of the key things I learned is that information theory and all that goes into it is just not of interest to me. (shrug) But if you're into it, I bet you'll really like this book.
"How I need a drink! Alcoholic, of course, after the heavy chapters involving quantum mechanics; but we did estimate some digits by making very bad, not accurate, but so greatly efficient tools!" -Alexander Volokh
This mnemonic covers how I feel about the latter chapters in this book, which are quite heavy. Before that are histories and biographies of telegraphs, codes, and mathematicians. These are good, but not great. The chapters on Shannon are excellent, but I would refer readers to [b:A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age|32919530|A Mind at Play How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age|Jimmy Soni|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1495386506s/32919530.jpg|53537272] for even better coverage. After that, the quantum discussions of information loss (black holes) and quantum entanglement. This starts off well, but soon goes to depths that would leave the average reader gasping for air. Much rereading was necessary. After this, the ending comes perhaps too quickly.
As …
"How I need a drink! Alcoholic, of course, after the heavy chapters involving quantum mechanics; but we did estimate some digits by making very bad, not accurate, but so greatly efficient tools!" -Alexander Volokh
This mnemonic covers how I feel about the latter chapters in this book, which are quite heavy. Before that are histories and biographies of telegraphs, codes, and mathematicians. These are good, but not great. The chapters on Shannon are excellent, but I would refer readers to [b:A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age|32919530|A Mind at Play How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age|Jimmy Soni|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1495386506s/32919530.jpg|53537272] for even better coverage. After that, the quantum discussions of information loss (black holes) and quantum entanglement. This starts off well, but soon goes to depths that would leave the average reader gasping for air. Much rereading was necessary. After this, the ending comes perhaps too quickly.
As good as the (now dated) [b:Chaos: Making a New Science|64582|Chaos Making a New Science|James Gleick|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327941595s/64582.jpg|62690], as interesting (and thorough) as [b:Time Travel: A History|28587584|Time Travel A History|James Gleick|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1472314681s/28587584.jpg|48754828], but not rising above either of those works. 4 solid stars.
