From Gutenberg to Google and on to AI - by Tom Wheeler (Paperback)

About the Book

Former FCC chairman Wheeler brings to life the two great network revolutions, the invention of the movable-type printing press and the telegraph. He puts these past revolutions into perspective of today, when rapid changes in networking are upending nearly every aspect of mode...

Book Synopsis

Former FCC chairman Wheeler brings to life the two great network revolutions, the invention of the movable-type printing press and the telegraph. He puts these past revolutions into perspective of today, when rapid changes in networking are upending nearly every aspect of modern life and are laying the foundation for a third network revolution.

From the Back Cover

It's easy to think that today's revolutions in communications, business, and many areas of daily life are unprecedented. The changes we experience nearly every day may be happening faster than those of the past, and on multiple fronts. But our ancestors at times were just as bewildered by rapid upheavals in what we now call "networks" the physical links that bind any society together.

In this fascinating book, Tom Wheeler vividly describes the two great network revolutions of the past and uses them to put in perspective the confusion, uncertainty, and excitement most people feel about changes happening now, changes that make up the third network revolution.

The first major network revolution was Gutenberg's invention of movable-type printing in the fifteenth century, which created the first mass-information economy. This book, its millions of predecessors, and history-shifting trends such as the Reformation, the Renaissance, and the scientific revolutions of the past 500 years would not have been possible without that one invention.

The second revolution came early in the nineteenth century with the inventions of the railroad and the telegraph. Never before had people been able to travel or communicate over long distances faster than a horse could gallop. Together, these two inventions compressed space and time, and in the process upended centuries of stability, transformed economies, and redrew the map of the world.

Wheeler contrasts these past revolutions with our experience today, when rapid-fire changes in networking are disrupting the nature of work, personal privacy, education, the media, and nearly every other aspect of modern life. The principal manifestation of this revolution--one that touches each of us directly and shapes both commerce and culture--is how we connect with each other. Our networks have always defined who we are, both economically and sociologically. Now, technology has delivered us into history's latest network revolution, changing everything it touches.

Outlining "what's next," Wheeler describes how artificial intelligence, virtual reality, blockchain, and the need for cybersecurity will prolong the third network revolution well into the future.

Review Quotes

A fascinating review of 500 years of new technology and the challenges as well as opportunities of technological change.

An entertaining and erudite tour of the great networks that have defined our civilization. Wheeler makes it clear that confronting the technological challenges of our time without the perspective provided by history is much like flying an airplane blindfolded.

Sometimes we have to take a step back in order to understand what's under our noses. With his entertaining account of three historical network revolutions, and the reactions they inspired, Tom Wheeler gives us the tools to understand the one we are living through today--and where it might take us tomorrow.

Tom Wheeler's From Gutenberg to Google contains page after page of insight about the unexpected ways in which technologies--from movable type and the telegraph to blockchain--have altered what we know and do. Drawing on his sure-footed command of the history of networks and from his time on the regulatory front lines, Wheeler has written a classic.

About the Author

Before he became chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in 2013, Tom Wheeler started or helped found several companies offering new cable, wireless, and video communications services. He is also a historian with a deep interest in how the events and trends of today reflect--or don't--what happened in the past.