The Information

A History, a Theory, a Flood

By: James Gleick

Narrated by: Rob Shapiro

Length: 16 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

James Gleick, the author of the best sellers Chaos and Genius, now brings us a work just as astonishing and masterly: A revelatory chronicle and meditation that shows how information has become the modern era’s defining quality - the blood, the fuel, the vital principle of our world.

The story of information begins in a time profoundly unlike our own, when every thought and utterance vanishes as soon as it is born. From the invention of scripts and alphabets to the long-misunderstood talking drums of Africa, Gleick tells the story of information technologies that changed the very nature of human consciousness. He provides portraits of the key figures contributing to the inexorable development of our modern understanding of information: Charles Babbage, the idiosyncratic inventor of the first great mechanical computer; Ada Byron, the brilliant and doomed daughter of the poet, who became the first true programmer; pivotal figures like Samuel Morse and Alan Turing; and Claude Shannon, the creator of information theory itself. And then the information age arrives. Citizens of this world become experts willy-nilly: Aficionados of bits and bytes. And we sometimes feel we are drowning, swept by a deluge of signs and signals, news and images, blogs and tweets. The Information is the story of how we got here and where we are heading.

©2011 James Gleick (P)2011 Random House

Critic reviews

"Accessible and engrossing." ( Library Journal)

positive surprise

Would you be willing to try another one of Rob Shapiro’s performances?

in a book that includes so many German phrases and words it would be nice to have someone check on Rob's German skills

Best Tech Book Ever!

If you're a lover of technology, science, engineering, or information, this is hands down the best book I've encountered. Thoroughly entertaining and thought provoking.

It’s an excellent book made to be listened to closely.

First off I would recommend this book for those interested in the history of how information has changed humanity and the forms it has taken through time. I would say though that some sections in the middle are a little bit boring and I had to take breaks and switch to something else for a while so I could listen without loosing focus. That’s just James for you though! you can tell how much he values getting the details right just like his book chaos, they have very similar styles and structure. he’s a very good author and this book will definitely challenge some of your views while enlightening you to new perspectives on how information should be valued.

mixed bag. some parts are better than orhers

good start. 2 and 3rd xhapter are borring.
but the worst is unironically quoting dawkins. chapters "Life's own code" and "Into the meme pool" are like spoon of dung into the cup of coffee.
you can compensate it by bill dwmbski's work.

Heavy Topics Age Slowly

The book is still current. The chapter on entropy was the best, the information age right behind that. Worth a re-listen, since you will miss half of it as your mind ponders. Narrator is slightly monotone, which made such a long book a challenge to listen to.

Perfect companion to Chaos

Chaos by Gleick ended with a quote that stuck with me: "Chaos is information creation."
I still feel like I want to know more but am thrilled by the world's of possibilities that both books have opened my eyes to.

Comprehensive look at all aspects of Information

This is a fully fleshed out course on all aspects of Information Theory. It's hard not to restate the title, but Gleick moves effortlessly from the history to the theory, and then to the wide reaching implications of observing information in a unit based format.

I was drawn to this book because of my interest in Claude Shannon and his work in data compression. When Claude Shannon first appears, his contribution to Information Theory is identified, but the concentration on compression is glazed over. I was personally disappointed, but Gleick returns to Shannon and Shannon-Fano coding and Huffman coding. This probably doesn't apply to many possible readers, but it explains the style of this book, by glazing over certain aspects initially before coming back around and covering them in much clearer detail. It's somewhat offputting, and I may have to re-listen to the book to ensure I got everything from it, but it ensures that all readers are at a similar understanding before moving towards the more intensive theories.

The 4-star rating for the performance is only because there isn't a 4.5 star rating. It is well read, and my only gripe was the slow pace. There were certain aspects, especially early in the history with the conversations about the use of drums as communication, where my mind would wander and come back, and I would feel like I hadn't missed much in what was trying to be communicated. This should reflect on the writing as much as the narrator, but I feel if it had been a bit "zippier" it may have retained my attention better in those slower sections. On the other hand, the methodical reading does allow for much more time dedicated to words and thoughts that are communicated in the story and isn't distracting as the subject matter gets denser.

Transformative and deeply intelligent

Information is a book that counterweights the agony of the information limbos humanity has endured in the past and is enduring now. Gleick reminds the reader that meaning will not be buried by the current cacophonie, because language itself is produced by ambiguity endemic to mental acumen.

Great book

Very interesting, well written and well read. Really enjoyed it. The author pulls the historical threads together expertly showing information evolving into its current pervasive presence.

Excellent

James Glick tells the conceptual history of information from the social, economic, philosophic and scientific perpectives. He oscillates through phases of biographical, analytical and speculative interludes. In doing so, he interweaves tough concepts with compelling narratives and strikes a balance that compelled but did not fatigue me as a listenner.