The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution 2014 Walter Isaacson Simon and Schuster, New York ISBN: 978-1-4767-0871-3

608 pages

eBook

Capturing a cultural revolution of the magnitude brought about by digital technology in one volume may be a bit too much to ask for. One can really expect to only capture a few snippets of the overall impact of such outside-the-box innovations such as the printing press and the electric light. The changes brought about by the advent of ubiquitous computer technology are unquestionably one of those topics that are challenging to condense. The first half of The Innovators does a competent job of tracing the evolution of computer technology from Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage up to the dawn of the Internet and the World-Wide-Web with a few new pieces of new information and some alternative emphasis. But the author begins to wander mid-text with a questionable discussion of pot-smoking, LSD-popping fringe characters and their impact on computer technology. This over-emphasized tale results in some later glaring omissions that weaken the second half of the book. Missing entirely is any discussion of the Space Race and its impact on the electronics evolution. Likewise Wang is mentioned only once (without comment) and Sun Microsystems twice (likewise without any explanation of what "workstations" implies). In both cases (Wang by demonstrating the reality of a market for small computers, and Sun by both showing the usefulness of desk-top computing and the power of networking) the groundwork that spurred on the geeks and hackers was around long before the development of the personnel computer. Although the digital revolution has certainly had its moments of genius (especially at its start), the modern portion of the tale is more one of gross mistakes rather than inevitable evolution. What if Xerox had not ignored the breakthroughs made by its research division at PARC? What if AT&T had not given away the transistor and then fought tooth and nail to halt the development of networks? And, what if IBM had cut a better deal with Bill Gates rather than hand him the store on a golden platter? All the parts (often, literally) were laying about in the 1950s through 1970s for hackers and geeks to pluck and use. It is a tale of mega-corporate ineptitude as much as loner-in-a-garage innovation. Isaacson develops a number of themes (rather unevenly) throughout the book , but especially in the closing chapter: 1. The quest for digital artificial intelligence is probably misguided if not (as others have pointed out) dangerous. The emphasis on the future development of digital technology should be on computers as human assistants rather than replacements.

2. Innovation proceeds better and faster if the technologies are open and free. Largely missing from the discussion, however, is much about why shareware failed (at least pre-iPhone) and just who can claim to have supported the infants in the digital nurseries. 3. The evolution of social media in some sense fulfills the prescient insights of Ada Lovelace - computers as handmaidens of art. But, do Facebook and Twitter really have the equivalent social impact as Google and Wikipedia? Time will tell. And what about the impact of Amazon and just-in-time production? More than most histories of the computer revolution, Isaacson's The Innovators details the lives and personalities of the players involved over the technological developments themselves. That is the primary values of this book. The Innovators is very nicely illustrated with abundant images of both people and equipment. Notes are extensive as is a good Index. Richard R. Pardi

Environmental Science William Paterson University