IN REVIEW IN How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
REVIEW BY GLENN RIFKIN
OR ANYONE UNDER the age of 35, spiritual soul of the “poetical science” that Isaacson the digital revolution has been less a trans- attributes to the best of those whose genius brought formation than a way of life. Earliest mem- us to our current place. In his exhaustive research, F ories often include video games, a keyboard, Isaacson was “struck by how the truest creativity of a mouse, a computer screen or a digital gaming de- the digital age came from those who were able to vice. This PlayStation Generation didn’t have to cross connect the arts and sciences. They believed that the chasm from the days when an electric typewriter beauty mattered.” was the latest in word processing technology to an Certainly Jobs, a visionary with a passion for de- era when a tiny handheld device sign and functionality, was a practitioner of the po- had more computing power than etical science. But there was more than the Apollo spacecraft that went a century of inspired thinking to the moon. They experienced and innovation between the early the Internet less as an epiphany musings of Charles Babbage and than as an assumption. Apple and his Analytical Engine and the Google and Facebook and Netflix origins of Apple Computer and happened, just as they should have. the advent of the Internet. And If you never experienced what though it is a fascinating journey, came before, what now exists in populated by an intriguing bucket the digital universe might seem brigade of innovators and excep- downright mundane. tional pioneers who handed off one Walter Isaacson, for one, critical layer of invention and design believes that these whippersnappers to the next in line, Isaacson’s book is ought to know where this digital a bit of a slog. Encyclopedic in scope, cornucopia came from. His latest it is at times a tedious read. And chronicle, “The Innovators: How though the book was a best seller a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and before it left Isaacson’s laptop, it isn’t Geeks Created the Digital Revolution,” clear that there’s an audience, in the comes on the heels of his blockbuster best- digital era he writes about, with the selling biography of Steve Jobs. attention span to get through it. With In this new book, Isaacson takes on the entire his- aggregators and bloggers and tweeters tory of computing and the emergence of the Internet. downsizing every message to a few measly words Apparently, Isaacson was immersed in this project or 140 characters, the scope of Isaacson’s tome may when a terminally ill Jobs recruited him to write his bi- make it one of those worthy books that is purchased ography. It was an auspicious interruption for Isaacson: but left on the bedside table unread. The Jobs biography has sold millions of copies and That said, some works are important and laudable paved the way for this ambitious follow-up. because of what they attempt to do, and Isaacson was Ambitious may be an understatement. In this not intimidated by the scale of his endeavor. This nearly 500-page effort, Isaacson takes us all the way linear work need not be read from front to back. It can back to Ada Lovelace, the daughter of Lord Byron, be taken in smaller pieces, conveniently broken into who envisioned a remarkable computing machine in key eras such as The Computer, Software, Program- the early part of the 19th century. Fueled by her dual ming, The Internet and so on. For those fascinated passion for poetry and math, Lovelace embodied the by the journey that brought us this world-changing
70 BRIEFINGS digital universe, this book is a must read. Isaacson is, at popping out of the head of a lone individual in a heart, a storyteller, and he frames each of his protago- basement or garret or garage.” nists within the context of their own lives and eras. Isaacson is diligent in presenting most of the For those of us old enough to have experienced relevant contributions. It wasn’t enough to build a firsthand the personal computer revolution and the massive, room-sized computer. The revolution would emergence of high-speed broadband, Wi-Fi and the have ended there if not for visionaries like M.I.T.’s Internet, many of these stories are familiar enough to Vannevar Bush, who promoted the union of govern- feel less like history and more like a rehash of current ment, military and private funding as a catalyst for events. How many more times must we read about bringing computing to a society-changing inflection the precocious genius of Bill Gates or the innovative point. He puts a spotlight on a cast of breakthrough arrogance of Steve Jobs? Isaacson offers some useful thinkers like William Shockley, who created the anecdotes but little in the way of new insight here. transistor, and Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, But where the book is the strongest is his explora- the fathers of the microchip. He writes elegantly tion of the earliest days of computing, when the about J.C.R. Lickliter, the pioneer of many of the key insatiable curiosity and brilliance of people like Alan concepts that led to the creation of the Internet. And Turing, John Mauchly, Presper Eckert, Grace Hopper, he takes particular delight in tripping back to the John von Neumann and Howard Aiken set the stage Silicon Valley’s Wild West—the Homebrew Computer for a wondrous world to come. Club days of the birth of personal In a clever story arc, Isaacson sets computing, where luminaries and out to identify the “inventor” of the “The main freaks like Stewart Brand, Steve Woz- computer, a task complicated by so niak, Doug Engelbart and Jobs turned many contributions, large egos and lesson to draw geekdom into late 20th-century cool. intricate relationships that cloud the from the birth Strangely, Isaacson pays no attention landscape. For example, he writes of computers is to the contributions of Ken Olsen, the about the genius of von Neumann, paternalistic founder of Digital Equip- the Hungarian-born mathematics that innovation ment Corporation, the company that mastermind who mentored Turing at is usually a created the minicomputer era of the Princeton and became a consultant to 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and was a crucial the breakthrough ENIAC computer group effort…” bridge from the world of multimillion- being built in the 1940s at the Univer- dollar mainframes to the personal sity of Pennsylvania. computer. Olsen created a matrix Von Neumann was a daunting presence who organization inside of Digital that allowed brilliant understood the discipline and focus required to young engineers to build noteworthy machines such as further the value of computer programming, a still- the PDP and VAX series of computers. Many of these underdeveloped but essential piece of the computing creative thinkers left Digital to start important new evolution. Quoting science historian George Dyson, companies or join fast-growing startups, and Olsen’s Isaacson expresses the importance of von Neumann’s influence was felt deeply around the computer universe. contributions. Nonetheless, the takeaway for Isaacson is clear: “The stored-program computer, as conceived by “The digital age may seem revolutionary, but it was Alan Turing and delivered by John von Neumann, based on expanding the ideas handed down from pre- broke the distinction between numbers that mean vious generations,” he writes. “The collaboration was things and numbers that do things,” Dyson wrote. not merely among contemporaries, but also between “Our universe would never be the same.” generations. The best innovators were those who un- Isaacson makes a case for each of these visionary derstood the trajectory of technological change and thinkers, but he refuses to place a victor’s wreath on took the baton from innovators who preceded them.” any single head. It is a story without an ending. The evolution “The main lesson to draw from the birth of com- continues at such a pace that new chapters are being puters is that innovation is usually a group effort, written daily. Not everyone is fascinated by history, involving collaboration between visionaries and particularly the history of technology. But given the engineers, and that creativity comes from drawing impact technology has had on every aspect of our on many sources,” he writes. “Only in storybooks do lives, it is a history worth reading about. inventions come like a thunderbolt, or a lightbulb authors.simonandschuster.com/Walter-Isaacson
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