Overview

Technology does not run the world. Standards do. Most books about technology tell the story of invention: who built the machine, wrote the code, designed the network or discovered the principle. This book tells the next part of the story: who decided which version of the technology the world would use. A railway needs a gauge. A telephone system needs numbers. A radio network needs spectrum. A shipping system needs containers of agreed dimensions. The internet needs protocols. Encryption needs algorithms. Mobile phones need common interfaces. Artificial intelligence increasingly needs benchmarks, audits and safety procedures. These agreements are standards. They are usually invisible. They are rarely neutral. The Standards That Run the World traces the hidden battles behind railway gauges, telegraphy, electricity, telephone numbering, spectrum, GSM, CDMA, the internet, encryption, VHS, Blu-ray, LTE, shipping containers, China's standards strategy, artificial intelligence and orbit. It argues that standards are where technical design becomes economic power and political order. They determine who can connect, who can manufacture, who can charge royalties, who can exclude competitors, who can govern networks, and whose systems the rest of the world must accommodate. This is a book for readers interested in technology, geopolitics, infrastructure, business strategy and the hidden systems that make modern life work.

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