The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood by James Gleick took me forever to read. This is not because it is a plodding book or a difficult book or a boring book. It is because it is a fat book, a fascinating book, a book crammed full of, appropriately enough, information. The book is about the history and theory of information, which incorporates the history of communication, the history of computers, the history of science, the history of code writing and everything that grew out of those things like writing and books and telephones and understanding DNA and quantum computing.
The book begins slowly and with the basics and picks up steam so that we start with the alphabet as the founding technology of information and end with quantum information theory, a place where information is divorced from meaning and turned into complex quantum mathematics. It is a fun and fascinating ride and I can’t begin to tell you everything so I will tell you about some of the things I wrote down in notes instead of just sticking a page point in to mark a page.
Modern information theory was revolutionized by Claude Shannon. Arguably, he is to the twentieth century what Darwin was to the nineteenth. His ideas about information allowed us to make great leaps forward into the coding, transmission, and storage of information.
The advent of electricity and wires and the study of the human nervous system about the same time begins the comparison between the two, especially with telegraph and telephone carrying messages. The telegraph and telephone began to turn human society into a coherent organism. With the advent of the telegraph, the world suddenly got a lot smaller.
The telegraph created the ability to report on the weather. Weather became an abstraction instead of a local phenomenon. It allowed the U.K. government to establish a meteorological office in 1854.
The available amount of information also changed the creation and study of history as large quantities of minutiae were transmitted via telegraph message and saved.
The Morse system ushered in a public comfort and familiarity with codes and encoding. To save money on telegraph messages, English was cut to bare bones. It was like the nineteenth century version of texting. Newspapers came up with code systems that would allow reporters to send messages in 10 words what would equal 100 words in print.
People were allowed to register code names on the telegraph registry. It was kind of like what making usernames for us is today.
Interesting stuff, yes? I also learned about random number theory, something I had not read much about before and which took a bit of work to wrap my mind around. How it relates to information theory is quite interesting. Random numbers are information heavy and non-random numbers carry little to no information because they are predictable. There is lots more to it than that, I assure you, but that is what it boils down to only it takes a whole chapter to explain it.
The Information is probably not a book for everyone. As much I liked it I realize that it’s appeal will be for librarians of a technical bent, those who enjoy reading science books written for a general audience, and tech nerds who did not major in computers at university. However, if you don’t fall into any of those categories but still think the book sounds interesting, don’t shy away! Give it a try! It is rewarding read. Promise.
That does sound interesting! I love nonfiction but I think I hesitate picking up NF books more often than I do is due to the sheer volume of information in them. I sometimes feel overwhelmed in a way I don’t with novels (even if I forget details I can remember the story and characters). I want to remember all the things I read about and it sounds like there is lots of information (literally!) in this one! Another one for the library list!
Hmm, methinks this may be something for Mister Litlove – although he does have quite a pile to read at the moment! But even so, I might look this out for Christmas. Lovely review!
Danielle, I understand about wanting to remember everything you’ve read in a NF books. I’ve given up on that. I have discovered, however, that information tends to be repeated in other books on related subjects so, for instance, I’ve come across the concept of entanglement in quantum physics often enough that when it got mentioned in this book I didn’t bat an eyelash. However, I’ve never come across anything about random number theory so that was new and hard. Hopefully I will come across it again sometime otherwise it will slip from my memory.
Litlove, oh I think Mr. Litlove will like this book a lot. It’s a doorstop though but well worth it.
This sounds interesting. I’ve found quantum physics fascinating (and, as you found, it does come up frequently in books on related subjects); the fact that I can’t wrap my head around it doesn’t faze me any longer. I’ve seen random number theory mentioned, but never really explained and doubt that even an entire chapter could clear it up for me as I’m particularly dense when it comes to anything mathematical.
What intrigues me is the “coding, transmission, and storage of information.” The availability of information and the sheer volume of information easily available is a bit overwhelming. The ways our brains adapt/evolve to process this information–well, I guess it really is Darwinian.
Jenclair, quantum anything is so foreign to everyday experience that it really is mind bending isn’t it? As to the volume of information being overwhelming, people have been complaining about that for centuries. 200 years from now people will probably be laughing at us and snickering, “they thought they were overwhelmed with information, ha!”
Repetition is good and I try and just remember themes, but still all those details would look lovely up in my brain!
Danielle, those details would look lovely in my brain too! They are already starting to fade. sigh. At least should I feel like pursuing some of the pieces further, the book has a great bibliography.
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