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TELECOSM: How Infinite Bandwidth will Revolutionize Our World
The computer age is over. After a cataclysmic global run of thirty years, it has given birth to the age of the telecosm - the world enabled and defined by new communications technology. Chips and software will continue to make great contributions to our lives, but the action is elsewhere. To seek the key to great wealth and to understand the bewildering ways that high tech is restructuring our lives, look not to chip speed but to communication power, or bandwidth. Bandwidth is exploding, and its abundance is the most important social and economic fact of our time.
George Gilder is one of the great technological visionaries, and the man who put the 's' in 'telecosm' (Telephony magazine). He is equally famous for understanding and predicting the nuts and bolts of complex technologies, and for putting it all together in a soaring view of why things change, and what it means for our daily lives. His track record of futurist predictions is one of the best, often proving to be right even when initially opposed by mighty corporations and governments. He foresaw the power of fiber and wireless optics, the decline of the telephone regime, and the explosion of handheld computers, among many trends. His list of favored companies outpaced even the soaring Nasdaq in 1999 by more than double. His long-awaited Telecosm is a bible of the new age of communications. Equal parts science story, business history, social analysis, and prediction, it is the one book you need to make sense of the titanic changes underway in our lives. Whether you surf the net constantly or not at all, whether you live on your cell phone or hate it for its invasion of private life, you need this book.
It has been less than two decades since the introduction of the IBM personal computer, and yet the enormous changes wrought in our lives by the computer will pale beside the changes of the telecosm. Gilder explains why computers will empty out, with their components migrating to the net; why hundreds of low-flying satellites will enable hand-held computers and communicators to become ubiquitous; why television will die; why newspapers and magazines will revive; why advertising will become less obnoxious; and why companies will never be able to waste your time again.
Along the way you will meet the movers and shakers who have made the telecosm possible. From Charles Townes and Gordon Gould, who invented the laser, to the story of JDS Uniphase, the Intel of the Telecosm, to the birthing of fiberless optics pioneer TeraBeam, here are the inventors and entrepreneurs who will be hailed as the next Edison or Gates. From hardware to software to chips to storage, here are the technologies that will soon be as basic as the air we breathe.
George Gilder is one of the great technological visionaries, and the man who put the 's' in 'telecosm' (Telephony magazine). He is equally famous for understanding and predicting the nuts and bolts of complex technologies, and for putting it all together in a soaring view of why things change, and what it means for our daily lives. His track record of futurist predictions is one of the best, often proving to be right even when initially opposed by mighty corporations and governments. He foresaw the power of fiber and wireless optics, the decline of the telephone regime, and the explosion of handheld computers, among many trends. His list of favored companies outpaced even the soaring Nasdaq in 1999 by more than double. His long-awaited Telecosm is a bible of the new age of communications. Equal parts science story, business history, social analysis, and prediction, it is the one book you need to make sense of the titanic changes underway in our lives. Whether you surf the net constantly or not at all, whether you live on your cell phone or hate it for its invasion of private life, you need this book.
It has been less than two decades since the introduction of the IBM personal computer, and yet the enormous changes wrought in our lives by the computer will pale beside the changes of the telecosm. Gilder explains why computers will empty out, with their components migrating to the net; why hundreds of low-flying satellites will enable hand-held computers and communicators to become ubiquitous; why television will die; why newspapers and magazines will revive; why advertising will become less obnoxious; and why companies will never be able to waste your time again.
Along the way you will meet the movers and shakers who have made the telecosm possible. From Charles Townes and Gordon Gould, who invented the laser, to the story of JDS Uniphase, the Intel of the Telecosm, to the birthing of fiberless optics pioneer TeraBeam, here are the inventors and entrepreneurs who will be hailed as the next Edison or Gates. From hardware to software to chips to storage, here are the technologies that will soon be as basic as the air we breathe.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 14, 2021
Tech-cheerleading companion to Microcosm: The Quantum Revolution In Economics And Technology.
It interesting to see how the authors predictions have stood the test of time, 21 years later. Bandwidth is not so abundant as to be "too cheap to meter", as he put it (quoting claims from a generation earlier about atomic power).
I wish I could have read this 21 years ago when I was starting at Qwest. He has a chapter that is mostly devoted to Qwest and how Q blew its early lead in the fibersphere by going with SONET.
Not a political book, although he does occasionally mention the importance of unregulated capitalism for his dream of virtually unlimited bandwidth to be realized.
Covers a lot of ground, networking history, satellite, fiber, the problem of the last mile, the business side of things. Occasionally a bit too sensational. On the other hand, it's fairly fun with lots of insider gossip. Not a dry tech manual.
My only important gripe about this book is it's 21 years out of date.
It interesting to see how the authors predictions have stood the test of time, 21 years later. Bandwidth is not so abundant as to be "too cheap to meter", as he put it (quoting claims from a generation earlier about atomic power).
I wish I could have read this 21 years ago when I was starting at Qwest. He has a chapter that is mostly devoted to Qwest and how Q blew its early lead in the fibersphere by going with SONET.
Not a political book, although he does occasionally mention the importance of unregulated capitalism for his dream of virtually unlimited bandwidth to be realized.
Covers a lot of ground, networking history, satellite, fiber, the problem of the last mile, the business side of things. Occasionally a bit too sensational. On the other hand, it's fairly fun with lots of insider gossip. Not a dry tech manual.
My only important gripe about this book is it's 21 years out of date.
July 13, 2017
My review follows more than 15 years after reading the book. After reading an article in the Economist (http://www.economist.com/node/360381) I picked up this book while the dot.com was bursting. I found a lot to like in it. Gilder's authoritative voice and unwavering faith in unlimited bandwidth was exactly the kind of vision I was looking for. (Less so, his tech poetic-style of writing.) The book and the main premise have stayed with me and informed my views during all these years - and while there has been and there still are challenges to abundant bandwidth (such as the re-emerging topic of net neutrality) the world is clearly moving towards making his vision a reality.
October 4, 2023
HILARIOUS BOOK. This was pointed to me as "the" telecom bubble book, and it did not disappoint. It is freaking promotional and very new age-y. very good zeitgeist read if you were looking for what optimism in 1999 for the telecom / internet revolution felt like. That being said, meh book.
March 30, 2021
二十年前的趨勢書，如今讀來已是歷史。
August 11, 2014
Any book by Gilder is a feast of factual and solid material about the real world.
Because Gilder deals in hard realities in both their archetypal and algorithmic expressions, his prose is varied. With this book he has helpfully broken the tone changes down for us:
Books 1 and 2 - science and history.
Books 3 and 4 - business and investing.
Book 5 - questions.
The key idea is this:
The electronic age is over.
Why? Because: "photonics beats electronics."
Major implication: dumb networks beat smart networks."
The key questions are not really questions but 2 statements of challenge to business waste and inefficiency: customer's time is wasted, and online business can now happen at the speed of light. Why not adapt to the new reality?
Because Gilder deals in hard realities in both their archetypal and algorithmic expressions, his prose is varied. With this book he has helpfully broken the tone changes down for us:
Books 1 and 2 - science and history.
Books 3 and 4 - business and investing.
Book 5 - questions.
The key idea is this:
The electronic age is over.
Why? Because: "photonics beats electronics."
Major implication: dumb networks beat smart networks."
The key questions are not really questions but 2 statements of challenge to business waste and inefficiency: customer's time is wasted, and online business can now happen at the speed of light. Why not adapt to the new reality?
July 14, 2011
A little dated since it was originally written in 1996, it still provides a good history of the early development of the Internet, and the technologies and personalities involved. Guilder makes several statements that are simply not true and he also makes many predictions, some of which came true, some which didn't. But generally his book was very readable.
June 10, 2016
After 16 years, this is still quite prescient. There are some misses (Java, WorldCom), but also some spot on previous. I would still recommend if need to think about the scarcities and abundances in the information economy.
February 9, 2023
When discussing the technology around the internet it’s important to understand they are time appropriate the year, month and now day and perhaps location and now with a level of historical understanding.
February 15, 2009
Stupendous
Read
April 15, 2010nonfiction,science,futurism,computing
February 12, 2012
Very informative book regarding progression of internet world.
March 25, 2014
A very good follow up to microcosm. Futuristic and visionary. Don't try reading in one go. Re-read.
August 26, 2009
Economics of scarcity and abundance
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews