James Gleick — What Just Happened: a Chronicle From the Information Frontier

Abacus 2002 Paperback, 256pp. The world has been transformed by technology over the last ten years: email and the Internet have transformed the workplace; virtual reality has become as permanent a fixture in our lives as material reality. It has been a time dominated by speed, hysteria and the remarkable range of devices that have entered our lives.Yet the arrival of the electronic world was not a single invention, nor a single event. It cannot be encompassed in a single moment. And as much as we have all lived through the last ten years, such has been the pace of evolvement that it is hard to grasp the extent and expanse of exactly what has occurred.In this fascinating new book, celebrated science writer James Cleick gives order to these swirling bits and pieces of change. What Just Happened describes both the astonishing new gadgets and the old that have been given new power and new life: and illuminating look at the technological breakthroughs that continue to turn the modern world on its head. (ISBN: 9780349115382). Good.