James Gleick, the author of the best sellers Chaos and Genius, now brings us a work just as astonishing and masterly: a revelatory... read full description
reviews
Jul 16, 2011
(Gushing review at the New York Times: Drumbeat to E-Mail: The Medium and the Message. At SFPL: “52 holds on first copy returned of 1 copy”).
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Jul 23, 2011
Jen
rated it: 
Here's an advertisement I want to place on craigslist because of this book:
Desperately Seeking:
Scintillating conversation partner who is preferably a math, physics, or logic major with strong knowledge of Quantum Physics and Information theory (of today and yesterday)and concepts including, but not limited to, the Babbage/Lovelace Difference Machine, Claude Shannon's math and entropy and cryptology, Turing's machine, logcal paradoxes, Maxwell's demon,The Heisenberg Uncertai More...
Desperately Seeking:
Scintillating conversation partner who is preferably a math, physics, or logic major with strong knowledge of Quantum Physics and Information theory (of today and yesterday)and concepts including, but not limited to, the Babbage/Lovelace Difference Machine, Claude Shannon's math and entropy and cryptology, Turing's machine, logcal paradoxes, Maxwell's demon,The Heisenberg Uncertai More...
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Jan 07, 2012
Jenny
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I have a soft spot for mathematics. The more complicated and obtuse it gets, the more I like it. It is probably best I didn't figure this out earlier in life, because I might have pursued it and gone crazy. So I enjoy reading about it from time to time.
In The Information, Gleick speaks to the interplay between mathematical progress with science, culture, information theory, and really the development of society. It is an incredible overview of topics ranging from logic to communi More...
In The Information, Gleick speaks to the interplay between mathematical progress with science, culture, information theory, and really the development of society. It is an incredible overview of topics ranging from logic to communi More...
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Jun 25, 2011
David
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Only half way through this book but it's one of the best I've read in a very long time. The chapter on Babbage and Lovelace filled me with rapture and awe, and a little bit of jealousy, peeking in on these great discoveries and the heady conversations and frequent advances and discoveries. What must it have been like to work at that level, to discover those things, to be so far ahead of your time? Incredible writing, so well researched, I just love this book... And as a bonus, highly applicable
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Apr 06, 2011
Bookmarks Magazine
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“A history-changing, paradigm-altering look at the evolution of the human capacity to process data,” according to the Oregonian, Gleick’s latest book makes even the most unexciting material “brim with tension.” The science can be overwhelming at times (quantum teleportation, anyone?), but Gleick provides clear explanations and analogies. For those less scientifically minded, he keeps the narrative moving along with fascinating facts, colorful digressions, and vivid portraits of long-forgotten in
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Jan 31, 2012
Loring
rated it:
Since I was absolutely astonished by such Gleick works as "Chaos" and "What Just Happened", and since his subject matter (Claude Shannon, Godel, info theory) is right up my alley, I was prepared to give this book five stars, particularly given raves in NY Times Book Review and elsewhere. Quite honestly, I'm tending toward the Goodreads consensus of four stars, leaning to a high three. And the reasons for that are quite specific.
Gleick pulls all the right ingredien More...
Gleick pulls all the right ingredien More...
Jan 16, 2012
Up to Chapter 4 on this excellent book...
Basically in an in depth historical review of information - how it has evolved from merely oral transmission, to various recordings (including the development of the alphabet, words, and written language), to the information age of today.
Phenomenal, engrossing, and makes me realize I actually learned some stuff during my informatics training!
So far I'd say this would NOT be for the light of hearted - heavy on detail, and not afra More...
Basically in an in depth historical review of information - how it has evolved from merely oral transmission, to various recordings (including the development of the alphabet, words, and written language), to the information age of today.
Phenomenal, engrossing, and makes me realize I actually learned some stuff during my informatics training!
So far I'd say this would NOT be for the light of hearted - heavy on detail, and not afra More...
Dec 24, 2011
Michael
rated it:
Gleick manages something incredibly, a deeply scholarly work that is also highly accessible. Today, information is like air, or water to a fish, so omnipresent we do not even see it. But Gleick traces the origins of this strange concept back through the technologies of the difference engine, telegraphy, writing, and speech; and the theories of mathematican Claude Shannon and a host of allied thinkers. Information has infected biology, physics, psychology, mathematics, and almost every other scie
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Aug 23, 2011
Jamie
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Jame's Gleick's The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood is kind of all over the place, as you might expect given its nebulous subject matter. The author intends to do pretty much what the subtitle suggests: review the history of information as a concept, dive into the scientific field of information theory, and ponder what recent volume of information flow means for us as a society or even as a species. As such, it's a mix of history, hard science, and even a dash of speculation.
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Aug 01, 2011
Gary
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This book could have alternately been titled "A History of the Bit: How the bit made modern communication, computing, logic, an understanding of biology and a whole bunch of other stuff possible." It's James Gleick's extremely ambitious attempt to wrap his arms around the entirety of the expansive concept of "information." To the uninitiated, "information" might seem like a rather straightforward concept, unworthy of a 400+ page book. After all, what is there to say
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May 27, 2011
Courtney
rated it: 
Put aside, rather than abandoned; I hope to pick Gleick's masterly,
but slow-paced, tome up later in the year, but right now my brain is
scurrying about at a pace ill-suited to this book.
You could read into the sentence above that I am one of the victims
of the information age - so distracted by the deluge of digital
information available to me that I can't concentrate on the type-set
page before me. However, I don't believe in information overload; one
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but slow-paced, tome up later in the year, but right now my brain is
scurrying about at a pace ill-suited to this book.
You could read into the sentence above that I am one of the victims
of the information age - so distracted by the deluge of digital
information available to me that I can't concentrate on the type-set
page before me. However, I don't believe in information overload; one
More...
May 24, 2011
Yothgoboufnir
rated it:
The Information has a lot going for it. And it has a lot going against it.
For starters, Gleick keeps the read enjoyable with his strong prose style. The author controls the pace and tone of his writing to carry readers along almost cinematically. Indeed, many passages read like the voice-over of a History Channel program, while simultaneously conjuring for readers the images that would play under the voice-over. It is a strong effect, engrossing and enjoyable.
The othe More...
For starters, Gleick keeps the read enjoyable with his strong prose style. The author controls the pace and tone of his writing to carry readers along almost cinematically. Indeed, many passages read like the voice-over of a History Channel program, while simultaneously conjuring for readers the images that would play under the voice-over. It is a strong effect, engrossing and enjoyable.
The othe More...
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May 14, 2011
Zach
rated it:
This book is best looked at in terms of hard and soft facts. It's most rewarding when it presents hard facts, the stuff of the sciences, theories and speculations explained by Gleick in exceptional, clear English. The book was less rewarding in the soft sections, the history and the humanity. Some of this is of course necessary to move the narrative forward. For example, Gleick does an effective job championing Claude Shannon as the most important voice in the history of information theory.
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May 01, 2011
Scotchneat
rated it:
I wrote a more complete review on my blog.
As with Chaos, Gleick displays a mastery and a passion for the history of ideas while creating new connections himself. Thinkers great and small come to life, and he has a real knack for surfacing exactly the right quote or life detail in a the life of whatever thought he’s following.
Gleick starts (and ends) with Shannon – that odd man from Bell Labs whose information theory is one of the most important developments of thought in the More...
As with Chaos, Gleick displays a mastery and a passion for the history of ideas while creating new connections himself. Thinkers great and small come to life, and he has a real knack for surfacing exactly the right quote or life detail in a the life of whatever thought he’s following.
Gleick starts (and ends) with Shannon – that odd man from Bell Labs whose information theory is one of the most important developments of thought in the More...
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Apr 27, 2011
Antonio
rated it:
James Gleick at his best. The uses and missuses of the concept of information are described, explained and linked. Information is physical, yes, as stated by Landauer and delightfully explained by Gleick, but also, information is not equivalent to meaning, as properly stated by Nyqvist and Shannon. Both terms, the physical aspect of information and the lack of meaning present in information (as meaning is subjective) are widely explained in a very clear way.
The mathematical theory of i More...
The mathematical theory of i More...
Apr 23, 2011
Stuart
rated it:
The first three quarters of this book were amazing to read. I'm not sure they'd read the same for everyone, but for me it was sort of like getting your great aunt to tell you the family history you already know, except with new twists and details your parents never told you. For one, information theory is something I think about often, and use professionally on a regular basis. It structures a lot of my thinking, and introduced me to many of the more resonant ideas I've encountered in my life
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Apr 21, 2011
Jack
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A lovely essay.
And it's an essay, albeit a 450 page one. Part of it is a meditation on how we came to understand information as something that could be measured and quantified -- and, indeed, quantified independently of its meaning. This in turn requires a fascinating history of communication technology and computing, well told. It culminates in a careful discussion of Shannon's notion of information theory. I had sort of heard about it a bunch, but had no clear sense of what inf More...
And it's an essay, albeit a 450 page one. Part of it is a meditation on how we came to understand information as something that could be measured and quantified -- and, indeed, quantified independently of its meaning. This in turn requires a fascinating history of communication technology and computing, well told. It culminates in a careful discussion of Shannon's notion of information theory. I had sort of heard about it a bunch, but had no clear sense of what inf More...
Apr 17, 2011
Trevor
rated it:
I think this is perhaps as good an introduction to information theory as you are likely to read. Lucid, clear and quite nicely paced, it covers a wealth of material and it does so with beautiful ease. This guy really is a wonderful science writer. His Chaos and Newton were both stunning books. I got about half of the way through Genius, but then got distracted and never quite made it back – but I’ve always meant to. All the same, this one shines and shines.
Perhaps the best chapter More...
Perhaps the best chapter More...
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Apr 08, 2011
Patrick
rated it:
James Gleick is about my favorite science writer and the subject of information couldn't be more better. Information is physical.
Amazon Review:
In a sense, The Information is a book about everything, from words themselves to talking drums, writing and lexicography, early attempts at an analytical engine, the telegraph and telephone, ENIAC, and the ubiquitous computers that followed. But that's just the "History." The "Theory" focuses on such 20th-cent More...
Amazon Review:
In a sense, The Information is a book about everything, from words themselves to talking drums, writing and lexicography, early attempts at an analytical engine, the telegraph and telephone, ENIAC, and the ubiquitous computers that followed. But that's just the "History." The "Theory" focuses on such 20th-cent More...
Mar 26, 2011
Couple thoughts, 50 or so pages in:
--Listen, it's damned impressive not just to zero in on the rise of information as a theory but to grapple with a comprehensive history of information. (Chapter one--African drumming as an early method of encoding bits of information... Like Michener writing one of his doorstoppers, Gleick will grapple with recent history via a relentlessly thorough examination of deep history.) I'm going to offer up a couple of initial complaints that have me lee More...
--Listen, it's damned impressive not just to zero in on the rise of information as a theory but to grapple with a comprehensive history of information. (Chapter one--African drumming as an early method of encoding bits of information... Like Michener writing one of his doorstoppers, Gleick will grapple with recent history via a relentlessly thorough examination of deep history.) I'm going to offer up a couple of initial complaints that have me lee More...
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Apr 09, 2011
Marc
rated it:
Excellent book! I can't stop reading it. Covers disparate topics like talking drums, cyphers, encoding, telegraphs, weather, and more in a single train of thought that is unlike a dozen other information books I've picked up and put down in the past 2 years.
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Jun 30, 2011
Nicholas
rated it:
The Information is so comprehensive and so multifaceted it almost defies categorization, unless that category you're looking for is: awesome. It's a history, a paradigm for looking at the development and future of human culture, a conception of the physical universe and much, much more besides. Gleick writes tremendous prose that gives a sense of how epic the development and processing of information throughout human history has been. The work is a mix of hard science and a softer narrative that
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Feb 17, 2012
Joe
rated it:
Journalist and science writer James Gleick’s The Information takes many shapes, much like its slippery subject. It’s in parts a biography of symbolic logic, a history of the bit and an introductory course in information theory. Yet it also contains tales of ciphers and cryptanalysis, extended description of an ancient communication style – African talking drums – and serious studies of the many innovators who, as theoretical mathematician Augusta Ada Byron King put it, “learned to walk on the th
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Nov 29, 2011
Catherine
rated it:
THe book opens with the history of communicating information. The first chapter is about 'drum talk', which is a drum language used in a part of the Democratic Republic of Congo where the spoken language is Kele. European explorers had been aware for a long time that the irregular rhythms of African drums were carrying mysterious messages through the jungle. Explorers would arrive at villages where no European had been before and find that the village elders were already prepared to meet them.
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Oct 10, 2011
Elizabeth
rated it:
Excellent book. GREAT read.
Although I have NO idea how Gleick pitched this to his agent, editor, et.al. This is the hardest book to explain and summarize. It's about "information"--which in Gleick's book, is both a very specific thing and a very general idea with vast influence. Any book that encompasses African talking drums, the development of telegraphy, black holes, Ada Lovelace and Wikipedia is going to be remarkably broad in scope, but Gleick keeps coming back to that More...
Although I have NO idea how Gleick pitched this to his agent, editor, et.al. This is the hardest book to explain and summarize. It's about "information"--which in Gleick's book, is both a very specific thing and a very general idea with vast influence. Any book that encompasses African talking drums, the development of telegraphy, black holes, Ada Lovelace and Wikipedia is going to be remarkably broad in scope, but Gleick keeps coming back to that More...
Aug 17, 2011
Incredible.
The problem with the "Information Age" is that so few people that participate in it, through mobile phones, Internet, GPS, etc. have any idea of how it came about and how big a revolution the shift from Analog to Digital really is. Heros like Alan Turing are almost completely unknown and untaught, unlike the heros of the Industrial Revolution like James Watt, Eli Whitney, Robert Fulton and others.
There are real heros, including Babbage, Boole, Godel, a More...
The problem with the "Information Age" is that so few people that participate in it, through mobile phones, Internet, GPS, etc. have any idea of how it came about and how big a revolution the shift from Analog to Digital really is. Heros like Alan Turing are almost completely unknown and untaught, unlike the heros of the Industrial Revolution like James Watt, Eli Whitney, Robert Fulton and others.
There are real heros, including Babbage, Boole, Godel, a More...
Aug 07, 2011
Jennifer (JC-S)
rated it:
‘What is information?’
‘We can see now that information is what our world runs on: the blood and the fuel, the vital principle.’
Information takes many forms, and relies on different technologies for its retention and dissemination. I struggled at first with the definite article in the title, but the more I read the more sense it made, most of the time.
‘Writing comes into being to retain information across time and across space.’
In this book, James Gleick More...
‘We can see now that information is what our world runs on: the blood and the fuel, the vital principle.’
Information takes many forms, and relies on different technologies for its retention and dissemination. I struggled at first with the definite article in the title, but the more I read the more sense it made, most of the time.
‘Writing comes into being to retain information across time and across space.’
In this book, James Gleick More...
Sep 06, 2011
Bruce
rated it:
This book was fascinating. In it the author traced not only the management of information, not only the role of information in our lives, but also the very foundation and development of the term and the concept. Working chronologically, he explored how language and writing precipitated a developmental change in our species and how encoding in various forms facilitated the growth and communication of information. At first it seemed that he was artificially divorcing information from knowledge
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Jul 05, 2011
Chris
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Every new medium transforms the nature of human thought. In the long run, history is the story of information becoming aware of itself.
This book is Gleick’s telling of that story, from the very first new mediums through to the latest. It’s a dense 500 pages that pivots around Claude Shannon’s 1948 paper titled, “A Mathematical Theory of Communication,” in which he coined the term “bit” and first proposed the idea of measuring and quantifying “information.” It was also his first form More...
This book is Gleick’s telling of that story, from the very first new mediums through to the latest. It’s a dense 500 pages that pivots around Claude Shannon’s 1948 paper titled, “A Mathematical Theory of Communication,” in which he coined the term “bit” and first proposed the idea of measuring and quantifying “information.” It was also his first form More...
Jun 11, 2011
Cheryl in CC NV
rated it: 
Oy. Heavy book - physically, that is - can't read it in bed. About halfway done. Too much biography, not enough of the (implied promise of) effect of technological developments on culture.
For example, there is a good section about how people adapted to the telegraph - although you can 'send' troops to the front or 'carry' messages, you cannot send a dish of saurkraut to your son. But then a bit later he tells us all about Claude Shannon, a mathemetician at MIT, including several More...
For example, there is a good section about how people adapted to the telegraph - although you can 'send' troops to the front or 'carry' messages, you cannot send a dish of saurkraut to your son. But then a bit later he tells us all about Claude Shannon, a mathemetician at MIT, including several More...
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