Book Report: The Information - James Gleick
This monster of a book has come out amidst a wave of other information- & internet-related publications, all of which seem to be getting a great deal of attention in the media. It seems obvious to me that books ought to be written in this area, but the high attention tells me that
This monster of a book has come out amidst a wave of other information- & internet-related publications, all of which seem to be getting a great deal of attention in the media. It seems obvious to me that books ought to be written in this area, but the high attention tells me that
- people are growing concerned about the spread of consumer technologies & the ubiquity of the internet
- people are not thinking about these subjects as much as I believe, so any book written in the area seems a novel breakthrough by a person who must have prophetic insight.
Does James Gleick have this prophetic insight? To be fair, the full title is The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood. Recognizing his historical agenda, there isn’t so much prophecy involved in his endeavour. He goes into painful detail at times, and often I questioned the necessity of many of the chapters, and how they hung together. At times it seemed more a survey of various topics than a clear narrative. In the words of Antoine de Saint Exupery (authour of The Little Prince) “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” After spending many, many hours pushing through Gleick’s book, I suggest that by Saint Exupery’s standards, the book is not quite perfect.
