Ronald Green, Eunice and Julian Cohen Professor Emeritus for the Study of Ethics and Human Values
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In the wake of his bestselling biographies Steve Jobs and Einstein, Isaacson has done it again with an engaging history of the advent of the personal computer and world wide web. Although the book gets off to a slow start chronicling the work in the nineteenth century of Charles Babbage and Lord Byron’s daughter, Ada Lovelace, it picks up speed as we enter the world of the early computer geeks and web pioneers. Throughout, Isaacson asks what social, cultural, economic, and ethical factors are needed to foster rapid technological innovation. On a critical note, Isaacson skips over Dartmouth’s brilliant president John Kemeny and his pioneering work on Basic.