The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood

The book covers how information has been treated in the precursors of the Information Age up to and including Google, Twitter and DNA databases. There is no standard definition, but there is the theory that the title refers to of Claude Shannon, and the overload of too much (TMI). The only irreversible process, and thus of any cost in terms of physical energy such as heat generation according to Landauer and Bennett, is erasure. The text briefly comments on data mining and machine intelligence, but does not dwell on the directions, not does it consider metadata, ontology, semantic web or augmented reality. Some of the author's previous interests in chaos theory, quantum, entropy and thermodynamics are summarized. It goes more deeply into the abstractions of concepts such as meaning, language, writing, cryptography, paradoxes, numbers, measurement, logic, communication, transmission, computers, networks and genetics along with the major contributions of a host of researchers. There are fifteen chapters and extensive notes and bibliography.

This book was a fantastic read. Gleick provides a perspective on information that is historical, theoretical and social. OK, that much you could find out from anywhere. But what's worth knowing is that it's an engaging read, almost a page turner! And Gleick delivers interesting insights into the lives many important characters who advanced the information age (Babbage, Ada Lovelace, Claude Shannon, Alan Turing, Norbert Weiner, and more). He sums up by addressing the topic of "information glut", which I suspect concerns most readers, and offers an optimistic outlook based on how society has managed with previous leaps-forward in information availability & load.

This is the sort of thing I usually, as a confirmed geek, absolutely love reading - but this was just not enjoyable. Beats the subjects to death, drags on about obscure cretins like Ada Lovelace whose "contributions" are those of any glorified assistant's, and it's just not a pleasant read, especially in the sexist usage of "she" as the universal pronoun and run-on paragraphs. Sadly, this is the second book I've not finished in my five plus decades as a voracious reader; hopefully, it's just me.