What Just Happened: A chronicle from the information frontier by James Gleick, Abacus, 拢12.99, ISBN 0349115389 Reviewed by Wendy M. Grossman
BACK at the start of the 1990s, James Gleick was minding his own business as a science writer hanging around top research labs when, in a fit of standard work avoidance, he became obsessed with his word processor. Bugs, or 鈥渋ssues鈥� as Microspeak now calls them, will do that to you. There began Gleick鈥檚 collection of 10 years of essays on the digital world.
They have held up remarkably well, in part because Gleick was, and still is, more interested in the social and cultural changes brought about by new technology than in passing fads like the dotcom boom. This is true even though Gleick himself started an Internet service provider, the Pipeline, although he sold it before the money madness really got under way.
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People may laugh at his essay claiming that the Net is a poor medium for pornography, but his prediction that the year 2000 鈥減roblem鈥� would not be the end of the world as we know it looks pretty good now. So does his piece from 1995 that documents the burgeoning bullying power of Microsoft, and his 1998 essay on the proliferation of draconian 鈥渃lickwrap鈥� 鈥� online licence agreements for content and software. Taken together, the collection documents most of the important trends of the periodin question.
When he started writing these essays, CompuServe more or less was cyberspace, though one of Gleick鈥檚 predictions was the death of proprietary online services. This was mostly successful, although AOL is still alive and kicking. But just look at the changes: by the end of the last essay, software patents are threatening to kill the digital world and pervasive computing means we鈥檙e frustrated when we can鈥檛 push a button to reboot real life.
Most people writing about the types of issues Gleick is looking at fall firmly on one side or another. It鈥檚 nice that he takes a more balanced view. You won鈥檛 find scare stories or campaigning advocacy, even on such contentious issues as privacy and the future of cash.
鈥淒on鈥檛 you guys ever work?鈥� a fed-up Microsoft engineer demanded back in Gleick鈥檚 bug-hunting days. Fortunately for us, yes, he does.