Glut

by Wright, Alex

• ISBN13: 9780801475092
• ISBN10: 0801475090
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-09-01
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr

Summary

The "information explosion" may seem like an acutely modern phenomenon, but we are not the first generation-or even the first species-to wrestle with the problem of information overload. Long before the advent of computers, human beings were collecting, storing, and organizing information: from Ice Age taxonomies to Sumerian archives, Greek libraries to Dark Age monasteries. Spanning disciplines from evolutionary theory and cultural anthropology to the history of books, libraries, and computer science, Alex Wright weaves an intriguing narrative that connects such seemingly far-flung topics as insect colonies, Stone Age jewelry, medieval monasteries, Renaissance encyclopedias, early computer networks, and the Internet. Finally, he pulls these threads together to reach a surprising conclusion, suggesting that the future of the information age may lie deep in our past.

Author Biography

Alex Wright is a writer and information architect whose articles have appeared in publications including Salon, The Believer, The Christian Science Monitor, and Harvard Magazine. He has led information architecture projects for the New York Times, Harvard University, and the Long Now Foundation, among others

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Networks and Hierarchies	p. 5
Family Trees and the Tree of Life	p. 22
The Ice Age Information Explosion	p. 39
The Age of Alphabets	p. 48
Illuminating the Dark Age	p. 78
A Steam Engine of the Mind	p. 99
The Astral Power Station	p. 122
The Encyclopedic Revolution	p. 143
The Moose That Roared	p. 152
The Industrial Library	p. 165
The Web That Wasn't	p. 183
Memories of the Future	p. 230
Appendixes
John Wilkins's Universal Categories	p. 239
Thomas Jefferson's 1783 Catalog of Books	p. 242
The Dewey Decimal System	p. 245
S. R. Ranganathan's Colon Classification	p. 247
Acknowledgments	p. 251
Notes	p. 253
Index	p. 271
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