The Death of Distance
As part of my Emerging Communications Technologies class, we're reading the book "The Death of Distance", by Frances Cairncross. I'm a few chapters into the book and I'm liking it more and more.
Initially, I found the book a little outdated. This new edition was published in 2001, so it spends a lot of time predicting what will happen as a result of the world's increased interconnectedness. It's difficult to read someone's predictions when you're living in the period they're predicting about. At the same time, I have to admire the author's predictions, since many of them have come true.
This book seemed to be a precursor to Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat, a fantastic book that talks more about the amazing things going on now, rather than what will happen in the future - a wise treatment considering how many times predictions are wrong. It almost seems like The World is Flat picked up where The Death of Distance left off.
However, after reading the second chapter, I've realized that the book delves into history more than I thought. It talks about earlier communications technologies, such as the telegraph, the radio and the telephone. It comes back to the democratizing effect that expanding communications technologies have, since the technologies of the rich are now more accessible to the middle and lower class. Friedman also spends a lot of time on this when he talks about a more level playing field, whether it's within a society or between nations.
I'm now enjoying the historical aspect of the book much more, especially since the author draws parallels between past and present disruptive technologies, comparing the telegraph and the internet, which incurred strikingly similar public reactions in their respective times.
One of the most amazing facts I learned was that some of the most widely-used communications technologies started out with completely different goals. The internet, the phonograph, and the telephone all took time and constant modification and evolution before they became the raging success that they were. Much like the Post-it note was developed for another function (and failed at that function), many times the most useful inventions start out in another field completely.
It shows the power of invention across all industries, because you never know where the next killer app. will come from.
Initially, I found the book a little outdated. This new edition was published in 2001, so it spends a lot of time predicting what will happen as a result of the world's increased interconnectedness. It's difficult to read someone's predictions when you're living in the period they're predicting about. At the same time, I have to admire the author's predictions, since many of them have come true.
This book seemed to be a precursor to Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat, a fantastic book that talks more about the amazing things going on now, rather than what will happen in the future - a wise treatment considering how many times predictions are wrong. It almost seems like The World is Flat picked up where The Death of Distance left off.
However, after reading the second chapter, I've realized that the book delves into history more than I thought. It talks about earlier communications technologies, such as the telegraph, the radio and the telephone. It comes back to the democratizing effect that expanding communications technologies have, since the technologies of the rich are now more accessible to the middle and lower class. Friedman also spends a lot of time on this when he talks about a more level playing field, whether it's within a society or between nations.
I'm now enjoying the historical aspect of the book much more, especially since the author draws parallels between past and present disruptive technologies, comparing the telegraph and the internet, which incurred strikingly similar public reactions in their respective times.
One of the most amazing facts I learned was that some of the most widely-used communications technologies started out with completely different goals. The internet, the phonograph, and the telephone all took time and constant modification and evolution before they became the raging success that they were. Much like the Post-it note was developed for another function (and failed at that function), many times the most useful inventions start out in another field completely.
It shows the power of invention across all industries, because you never know where the next killer app. will come from.
posted by Allison at 6:16 PM
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