My Favorite History Book

James Gleick is an incredibly well-read person who, in this extensive and worthwhile book “The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood”, presents the history of information and information processing. It is quite remarkable that the author is very well-versed in both “cultures,” the humanities and the natural sciences.

As the book’s subtitle suggests, the history of information is explained first. Here, the author covers a broad spectrum from drum languages and cuneiform to the printing press, dictionaries, Charles Babbage, telegraphy, Morse codes, and telephony, all the way to today’s computers. It is truly remarkable what the author has gathered here. I particularly liked that the physical foundations of steam engines and electricity are also taken into account.

Later in the book, the development of modern logic, information theory, and probability theory, along with their foundations, is explained. For a book aimed at the general public, I, as a computer scientist, found nothing lacking.

The impacts on other fields, such as physics or psychology, are also described in an interesting way. The discussions at the time of the founding of new fields, such as cybernetics, computer science, and cognitive sciences, are fascinating.

Finally, the current situation is described, and the flood of data is addressed. But this development is not yet complete, as people today are talking about an “Internet of Things” that is intended to connect even more devices and process even more information.

With such a complex topic, it is very difficult to write a book that is aimed at the general public and accepted by everyone. On the one hand, there shouldn’t be too many complex mathematical formulas, nor should the cultural backgrounds be explored in too much detail. Otherwise, one of the target groups might lose interest. I think James Gleick has found a reasonable compromise here.

Conclusion: The book is not a textbook on information theory, but it is highly worth reading as a history book and a foundational work.

• James Gleick
• The Information : a history, a theory, a flood
• Pantheon Books
• 2011

See also the review on Amazon.