Awards

• Short-listed for Aventis Prize for Science Books 2000
• Short-listed for Aventis Prizes for Science Books: General Prize 2000
• Shortlisted for Aventis Prize for Science Books 2000.
• Shortlisted for Aventis Prizes for Science Books: General Prize 2000.

Overview

The Internet is the most remarkable thing human beings have built since the Pyramids. John Naughton's book intersperses wonderful personal stories with an authoritative account of where the Net actually came from, who invented it and why, and where it might be taking us. Most of us have no idea of how the Internet works or who created it. Even fewer have any idea of what it means for society and the future. In a cynical age, John Naughton has not lost his capacity for wonder. He examines the nature of his own enthusiasm for technology and traces its roots in his lonely childhood and in his relationship with his father. A Brief History of the Future is an intensely personal celebration of vision and altruism, ingenuity and determination and above all, of the power of ideas, passionately felt, to change the world.

Full Product Details

9780753810934

Table of Contents

Reviews

The Internet is one of the greatest human creatioins of all time, and yet for most of us it appeared overnight. As with all great constructions, many years of work went into its development. What makes the Internet unique is that there was no master plan, or even a simple vision. It started out as a basic connection between two computers and has evolved into the World Wide Web. Naughton, a Senior Lecturer at the Open University, has set out to document and preserve the history of the first few years of the Internet. He gives credit to the people who deserve it: far-sighted prophets such as Joseph Licklider, Robert Taylor, Douglas Engelbart, Norbet Wiener, Vannevar Bush and Ted Nelson; as well as the technologists and engineers who made it happen: Paul Baran, Donald Davies, Larry Roberts, Bob Kahn, Vint Cerf and Tim Berners-Lee. By its very nature this is a technological book, but it is not necessary to be a technologist to read it. The title alludes to Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time and, like that book, this presents a very readable offering on a very involved subject. Every chapter has intriguing anecdotes and Naughton's insights into the thinking behind the technology are fascinating. He is very concerned aboaut the negative view of the Internet put forward by a sensationalist press and is concerned that the real facts are well documented, so that we do not have to wait 50 years before we all realize what an incredible achievement the Internet is. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

John Naughton has been an academic and a journalist all his working life. He is a Senior Lecturer in Systems at the Open University, and since 1987 has written a weekly column for the Observer which has won him several major awards including three nominations as Critic of the Year. He is also a Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge and the Director of the College's Press Fellowship Programme.

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