The Information: a History, a Theory, a Flood

The Information: a History, a Theory, a Flood

By James Gleick
Pantheon Books. 2011. 526 Pages. Nonfiction

James Gleick begins his story of the encoding and transmission of information with African drums which communicate complex messages based on the tones and inflections of language. Language itself is a code which can then be encoded again in written characters, signals, drum rhythms, electrical pulses. The Information presents a selection of people, inventions, philosophy and science that have led to modern modes of information transmission and processing.

The book is as fascinating as it is profound. But with more than 500 pages, it is definitely for the dedicated nonfiction reader. I particularly enjoyed the chapters about the impact of the telegraph (A Nervous System for the Earth) and the telephone because these were the “social networking” technologies of their day. Several of the later chapters are dense with mathematics and physics but still offer interesting insights to the non-scientific reader.

SH