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The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage is one of my favorites. It talks about how the telegraph brought near instantaneous communication and how that changed t
by alexpotato 3y ago
The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage is one of my favorites.
It talks about how the telegraph brought near instantaneous communication and how that changed the world. He gives specific examples for finance, newspapers and even the law ("Can you approve a contract over the telegraph?")
What I found most interesting:
I read this book in the late 2000s/early 2010s and remember thinking "Wow! This is is EXACTLY what's happening now with newspapers. When was this written?" and seeing that the original copy came out in 1998!
- alexpotato 3y agoI also wanted to mention the "cousins" of: > "Can you approve a contract over the telegraph?" - Is a faxed copy of a signed contract legally binding? - Is an email scan of a signed contract legally binding?
- andyjohnson0 3y ago+1 for The Victorian Internet. A fascinating book. His descriptions of how the telegraph disrupted people's existing understanding of distance and time/simultaneity are very interesting. People thinking that the physical telegraph form was transmitted, rather than just its content, and demanding to telegraph other physical objects. Also the use of commercially published word-books to shorten and obfuscate long telegraph messages is reminiscent of data compression and cryptography today.