JOHN NAUGHTON

Weve gone from regarding the Net as something exotic to something that we take for granted, like mains electricity or running water. Yet most people have no idea how the network functions, nor any conception of its architecture; and few can explain why it has been - and continues to be - so uniquely disruptive in social, economic and cultural contexts. John Naughton has been thinking, arguing, lecturing and writing about the Net for over two and a half decades, and in FROM GUTENBERG TO ZUCKERBERG he distills the noisy chatter surrounding the internets relentless evolution into nine clear-sighted and accessible areas of understanding.FROM GUTENBERG TO ZUCKERBERG gives you the requisite knowledge to make better use of the technologies and networks around and raises important questions, as exciting as they are unsettling, about the future of the Net and the impact it will have on our lives.

The Internet is the most remarkable thing human beings have built since the Pyramids. John Naughtons book intersperses wonderful personal stories with an authoritative account of where the Net actually came from, who invented it and why and where it might be taking us. Most of us have no idea how the Internet works, or who created it. Even fewer have any idea what it means for society and the future. In a cynical age, John Naughton has not lost his capacity for wonder. He examines the nature of his own enthusiasm for technology and traces its roots in his lonely childhood and in his relationship with his father. A Brief History of the Future is an intensely personal celebration of vision and altruism, ingenuity and determination and, above all, of the power of ideas, passionately felt, to change the world.