Telecosm: How Infinite Bandwidth Will Revolutionize Our World - Hardcover

Gilder, George

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684809303 ISBN 13: 9780684809304

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2000

Synopsis

The publisher of the Gilder Technology Report predicts a revolution of high-speed, high-powered networks--not limited to the capacity of a PC--that will enable users to transmit information at an exponentially higher rate. Tour.

About this title

Review

And he said, "Let the computer age be over". And so it was.

In Telecosm: How Infinite Bandwidth Will Revolutionize Our World George Gilder predicts a revolutionary new era of unlimited bandwidth. It describes how the "age of the microchip"--dubbed the "microcosm"--is ending and leaving in its wake a new era--the "telecosm", or "the world enabled and defined by new communications technology".

Speaking like a prophet of the bandwidth deity, Brother Gilder lays down the telecosmic commandments--the Law of the Telecosm, Gilder's Law, the Black Box Law, and so on. He describes the gaggle of industry players--from cable and satellite to telephone and computer--who populate the telecosm arena.

What happens when we become blessed with the miracle of infinite bandwidth? Gilder writes, "You can replace the seven-layer smart network with a much faster, dumber, unlayered one. Let all messages careen around on their own. Let the end-user machines take responsibility for them. Amid the oceans of abundant bandwidth, anyone who wants to drink just needs to invent the right kind of cup". And what of unlimited bandwidth? No mere contradiction in terms, unlimited bandwidth is what we strive for ("we" meaning those of us bravely suffering through the contradictions of Moore's Law and Metcalfe's Law, as we increase our RAM and decrease our Net access time).

While it seems too simple to describe Telecosm as a telescopically written book of cosmic proportions, it is that and more. Gilder's political rants and raves for infinite bandwidth boldly foretell the age of the telecosm and its dramatic impact on all of us--of our metamorphosis from users bound by the limits of our networks to "bandwidth angels", computing in the "promethean light". --E. Brooke Gilbert

Review

"The Economist" Even sceptics would do well to read "Telecosm..."Mr. Gilder's messianic intensity and relentless optimism exert a grip on the reader that never lets go. You may not understand everything in "Telecosm," but it may change your mind in unexpected ways.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0684809303
• ISBN 13: 9780684809304
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 351