physicsworld.com Reviews

Andrew Robinson teenage Internet nerd. Then, after graduating from a UK university in 2008, he became an investiga- tive journalist, who has now spent more than a decade reporting on the Net entanglement Internet. In 2014 he was a member of US team awarded a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of US online , arising from the whistleblowing of . The System begins at the beginning iStock/Jason Doly iStock/Jason in 1969 with a section, “The mechan- ics”, on the structure and operation of the Internet, divided into three chapters. “The architects” discusses the engineers and academics who invented the system. “The cable guys” covers the less glamorous fibre-optic companies that provide the physical links. “The custodians” profiles those who supervise its oper- ation, notably ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers: until 2016 a US gov- ernment agency, but now an interna- tional body that makes its income by taking a portion of the fees paid by people buying online addresses. The second section of the book, “The money”, deals with the ven- ture capitalists and chief executives responsible for starting and promot- ing Internet companies – some of whom have become billionaires – Seat of power The Internet – our latest innovation Thus, the Internet went from and the invasively inquisitive system James Ball’s new in the history of written communica- being “a closed community of US of online advertising that earns these book argues that the tion, which itself began in the fourth government staff and academic vast profits. Internet needs to be millennium BC – is now half a cen- researchers, to a fringe community The third and final section, “The regulated because tury old. It dates from the moment of nerds, to the bright shining hope melee”, picks up on earlier discus- Facebook and the in October 1969 when a computer of capitalism, to suddenly being criti- sions, covering topics such as gov- other “big four” at the University of California, Los cal infrastructure”, writes author ernment intelligence agencies and Internet companies Angeles, accessed a computer at and journalist James Ball. “And all anonymous hackers (“The cyber hold too much the Stanford Research Institute of that happened with few of us pay- warriors”), and the US Federal Com- power. in Menlo Park. It spread slowly, ing attention and fewer still think- munications Commission (“The funded by the US Department of ing even one step ahead.” His latest rulemakers”). The final chapter, The System: Who Defense’s Advanced Research Pro- book, The System: Who Owns the “The resistance”, focuses on activist Owns the Internet, jects Agency, as a project known as Internet, and How It Owns Us, is a groups, such as the San Francisco- and How It Owns Us ARPANET. In 1970 it connected compelling historical analysis. based Electronic Frontier Founda- James Ball about 10 computers, and by 1977 But it also serves as a clarion call tion, trying to hold the Internet’s 2020 Bloomsbury there were around 100. Not until to attention and action before the power in check. £20.00hb 288pp 1985 did the number reach 1000. Internet degrades and becomes Along the way, Ball includes many From then, the numbers grew expo- a source of division instead of its significant interviews with pioneers nentially: from 10 000 by 1987, to earlier source of unity – more like in the field, including Steve Crocker, 100 000 by 1990, to 1000 000 by 1993, the profit-driven website Facebook a software engineer present at the following the invention of the World than the non-profit Wikipedia, so first log-in in 1969; Gorän Marby, Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee at to speak. “The joy and the wonder a Swedish regulator who took over CERN in 1989. Today, about half of the Internet is that everything is the helm of ICANN in 2016; Brian of the world’s population has access connected. Clearly, for anyone try- O’Kelley, the former chief executive to the Internet, and the total num- ing to look at how to fix its problems, of huge online advertising company ber of Internet-connected devices is the fact that everything is connected AppNexus; Cindy Cohn, a lawyer estimated at around 25–30 billion – makes everything a lot harder, too.” who directs the Electronic Frontier that is, four devices for each person Ball is well qualified to write on Foundation, and Wikipedia founder on the planet. this subject. He was a self-proclaimed Jimmy Wales. But certain key play-

44 Physics World July 2020 physicsworld.com Reviews

ers do not feature in interviews, cludes: “If there is a sector more ripe notably the founders of , Hard-fought for the reinvigoration of the big case Facebook and Google, or, unsurpris- tradition, I don’t know it.” Other- ingly, the intelligence chief in charge competition laws wise, the major Internet companies of the National Security Agency at will continue to follow the example of the time of the Snowden revelations. introduced to Facebook’s 2014 purchase of What- In discussing the need for future sApp for $19bn, as well as an analyt- regulation of the Internet, Ball regulate railway ics app that had allowed Facebook to makes an illuminating historical spot and quash potential rivals. As comparison. The four best-known monopolies must Ball comments, “no-one was there to Internet companies – Amazon, stop it, or even to question it. No-one Apple, Facebook and Google (now now be reinvented ever is” – until now that is. formally called Alphabet) – are Maybe, he speculates in conclu- “engines running along the rail- to control the sion, the spur to democratic reform way lines set out by the Internet’s and regulation will be the current very structure”. And “just as rail- Internet for the good rise of authoritarian China’s tech- ways could be used to create new nology giants and the consequent monopolies in other industries – by of the world ebbing of the US dominance of the charging different rates to different Internet after half a century. If so, companies, or playing favourites” ironically, a world-changing innova- – so too can the Internet, when its tion originally triggered by military structure has been harnessed by the research may once again benefit big players. laws introduced to regulate railway from military considerations. Following Tim Wu, a Columbia monopolies in the early decades of Law School professor and author the 20th century, must now be rein- Andrew Robinson is the author of many of The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust vented to control the Internet for the books on the history of science, most in the New Gilded Age (2018), Ball good of the world, rather than just recently Einstein on the Run: How Britain argues that hard-fought competition a group of billionaires. As Wu con- Saved the World’s Greatest Scientist

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