A Fantastic Examination of an Overlooked Technological Revolution
5 stars
Technology interacts with society in unpredictable ways, and arguably one of the first instantiations of a technological revolution that upended norms, business models, and the law was the telegraph. As Standage shows in this masterful book, the advent of the telegraph spawned changes that are shockingly similar to those we've observed with the internet and other modern technologies - utopian prognostications about its effects, new forms of military action, platform business models, network effects, disinformation, and more.
Our distance from the time of the telegraph makes it particularly instructive, and one that economists and technologists alike would be wise to reflect on when pontificating on the unique nature or general applications of a particular new innovation. Highly recommend
The telegraph was the first tool that allowed rapid communication between parties thousands of miles away from each other. This book is a rather too short history of its development, starting with the failures that preceded the technology, over the optical semaphore systems originally used, towards the mature system that allowed instant communication in the later half of the 19th century. The book delves into the amusing follies that came with its development (the first Atlantic telegraph line failed after a month, and records later showed the operators were largely asking if the other side received them), touches on the subculture of telegraph operators that held sway for a long time (including at least one wedding conducted over telegraph), and goes on to see its slow and inevitable demise after the invention of the telephone, originally just an outgrowth of the booming telegraph market. The book is a light and …
The telegraph was the first tool that allowed rapid communication between parties thousands of miles away from each other. This book is a rather too short history of its development, starting with the failures that preceded the technology, over the optical semaphore systems originally used, towards the mature system that allowed instant communication in the later half of the 19th century. The book delves into the amusing follies that came with its development (the first Atlantic telegraph line failed after a month, and records later showed the operators were largely asking if the other side received them), touches on the subculture of telegraph operators that held sway for a long time (including at least one wedding conducted over telegraph), and goes on to see its slow and inevitable demise after the invention of the telephone, originally just an outgrowth of the booming telegraph market. The book is a light and interesting read, maybe in parts a bit too light. It touches on interesting parts of the history alright, and often enough leads into yet another aspect leaving unanswered questions behind. I gladly would have read more about the subculture of telegraphers, the various scams and crimes taking advantage of the technology, and the impact on society it had, but instead after some short pages the book veers into a different direction, leaving unanswered questions. One of the more quaint elements of the book is how the author tries to compare and contrast all those developments from the history of the telegraph with the development of the internet. Now I don't say that he doesn't have a point there, many of those parallels are perfectly valid, but the book was published in 1999, and he writes as if he had to explain what the internet is. Which fits in nicely with his description of how the public and politics adopted the telegraph. But I don't think that was intentional.
