|
The well-known biographer of Richard Feynman and Isaac Newton, Gleick takes on the history of information, examining the increasingly complex methods and technologies that humans have used to create, transmit, store, analyze, and retrieve it. Beginning with the invention of language and mathematics, the author takes readers through the development of dictionaries, the telegraph and telephone, the 19th century "difference engine" and modern computers, information theory, and the Internet and Wikipedia, each of which built on and extended earlier knowledge and technologies. Gleick also introduces the people most closely associated with each new development, including Ada Babbage (the world's first computer programmer), mathematician Alan Turing, and Claude Shannon (the inventor of information theory). An entertaining book that rewards close reading and re-reading, The Information will appeal to science geeks and non-geeks alike. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
|