The Evolution Of Wired Life

The ever illuminating Cliff Lampe returns, this time with a book and topic which continue to hover in the background. What sort of a life has information taken on in our brave new world? It sounds like a balanced account with a wide-ranging approach.

The Evolution Of Wired Life author Charles Jonscher pages 279 publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc. rating 8.5 reviewer Cliff Lampe ISBN 0471357596 summary My analog dad could beat up your analog dad.

The Scenario There are actually two subtitles to this book, which is why we are not including them in the above summary. Both subtitles initially made us nervous about bringing this book to the attention of all. The first subtitle is "From the alphabet to the soul catcher chip" and the second is "How information technologies change our world." Both titles make one nervous. Cries of "Sweet melting pogo sticks, not another book about how technology is changing the way we live." This reviewer, in particular, was dreading this book after a summer chock full of such heady titles. It seemed from the titles above that the reader was being offered a watered down version of The Age of Spiritual Machines. Suprisingly, pleasantly, nothing could be further from the truth.

The suprising part is that the answer to "How information technologies change our world" is "Not as much as you may think", and the pleasant part is that the treatment of "From the alphabet to the soul catcher chip" is as pleasing a description of the basic blocks of information theory that one could hope for. Far from an echo paean to Ray Kurzweil, Jonscher offers what most biologists could already tell us, that it is harder than one thinks to replicate a neuron. For example, the chemical signals between axons and dendrites are not as binary as most would lead you to believe. Neurotransmitters are of different flavors and varieties, and very analog. The author points out that each neuron itself is hugely sophisticated, more complex than most single celled organism, which are able to do many things on their own that computers are not able to.

This book points out that rather than analog being worse than digital, in many cases it is actually better, and no, not just for vinyl freaks either. After all, how much effort is spent trying to make the digital look or sound more analog? Consider when you sample a wave of sound denoting music to try and put it onto a CD, or into an MP3 format. Even with 44,100 samples of a single curve, the simple fact remains, you are not getting the entire thing. You are letting things go, because as it happens our ears aren't very good at detecting that difference anyway. The book takes a tour of those sensory limitations, and how it has affected a range of instruments we have developed to store and transmit information, literally starting at 8,000 B.C. with the start of the first crude alphabets and going to the idea of placing a chip behind the retina to record all of the events of a life and reconstruct that life from them. Which is a terrifically bad idea, but we'll not go into that now.

Jonscher cuts a wide swath through information science. He himself is an old time computer user, and affiliated with Harvard University's Program on Information Resources Policy. In other words, this is no Luddite. Chapters on the history of information, development of the chip, the difference between analog and digital and information economics are tight, with some notable exceptions mentioned below.

What's Good? Particularly, the chapter on information economics, entitled "Computers and Economic Progress" is very good. Jonscher's current position as president of the investment firm Central Europe Trust Company lends him a particularly strong voice here. For instance, we've accepted we've moved past the Industrial Age, but think of the wonders our grandparents saw. Consider the progress between 1900 and 1950 compared to 1950 and now. As an example, most places in the world in 1900 still relied on horses for transport, whereas in 1950 the jetliner had been invented and transcontinental air travel was established. Those same jets have not really changed significantly in the past 50 years. The point being, that the Information Age has not changed our world nearly as much as did the age that came before it. If you read any chapter of this book make it this one.

Which is not to say that there is not a lot of other great material here. Very rarely has a book delved as thoroughly, yet concisely, into some of the core principles of information science that we so take for granted today. The descriptions, whether they be mathematical, biological or organizational, are all quite clear and followed well with cogent examples and analysis.

Check out also the author's Further Reading section, which has some very good material in it, some of which has been reviewed here in the past. While some of these "sociology of information technology" books can be a pain in the fundament, this is as good a list as any for looking at this issue, with recommendations from those the author both agrees with, and those with whom he does not.

What's Bad? Frankly put, the chapter on "Multimedia and the Internet." Take a Sharpie and just cross out the pages, it will be kinder than accidentally catching a phrase as you skip to the next chapter. If you do read this chapter, and want to unleash some whoop-ass because we recommended this book, please see either Hemos or Timothy c/o Slashdot.org.

It really points to a question of audience for this book. This is a solid overview of the history, present and future of information technology taken from a solid, unapologetic stance, but for whom is it written? The terrible Internet chapter seems to indicate it was not meant for those already Net savvy, but it is hard to imagine Ma Kettle picking up this book and enjoying it. Like so many books these days, it mistakenly seems meant for that juicy middle demographic, people who have to use computers, but may not necessarily be thrilled about it. Ignore that though, and read this book.

So What's In It For Me? If you've used computers for a good long time but have never stopped to consider how they did not appear out of thin air one day, then you should probably read this book. This book definitely has a place on the shelf between The Age of Spiritual Machines and The Social Life of Information as a good pointer to the way information technology works in a larger framework than the oft opened box sitting on your desk.

It's also well written enough to be an easy, quicker read than some other books in the same genre. This look at technology and the overinflated opinion it has of itself is more thorough and complex than the recent articles by Bill Joy, while approaching the subject from a thoughtful, well informed perspective that you are sure to enjoy.

You can purchase this book at Fatbrain.