Blown to Bits Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness After the Digital Explosion

"If you want to understand the future before it happens, yours"ll love this book. If you want to change the future before it happens to you, this book is required reading." Reed Hundt, former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission "There is no simpler or clearer statement of the radical change that digital technologies will bring, nor any book that better prepares one for thinking about the next steps." LawrenceLessig, Stanford Law School and Author ofCode and Other Laws of Cyberspace "Blown to Bitswill blow you away. In highly accessible and always fun prose, it explores all the nooks and crannies of the digital universe, exploring not only how this exploding space works but also what it means." Debora Spar, President of Barnard College, Author ofRuling the WavesandThe Baby Business "This is a wonderful bookprobably the best since Hal Varian and Carl Schultz wroteDigital Rules. The authors are engineers, not economists. The result is a long, friendly talk with the genie, out of the lamp, and willing to help you avoid making the traditional mistake with that all-important third wish." David Warsh, Author ofKnowledge and the Wealth of Nations "Blown to Bitsis one of the clearest expositions Irs"ve seen of the social and political issues arising from the Internet. Its remarkably clear explanations of how the Net actually works lets the hot air out of some seemingly endless debates. Yours"ve made explaining this stuff look easy. Congratulations!" David Weinberger, Coauthor ofThe Cluetrain Manifestoand Author ofEverything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder. "Blown to Bitsis a timely, important, and very readable take on how information is produced and consumed today, and more important, on the approaching sea change in the way that we as a society deal with the consequences." Craig Silverstein, Director of Technology, Google, Inc. "This book gives an overview of the kinds of issues confronting society as we become increasingly dependent on the Internet and the World Wide Web. Every informed citizen should read this book and then form their own opinion on these and related issues. And after reading this book you will rethink how (and even whether) you use the Web to form your opinionshellip;" James S. Miller, Senior Director for Technology Policy and Strategy, Microsoft Corporation "Most writing about the digital world comes from techies writing about technical matter for other techies or from pundits whose turn of phrase greatly exceeds their technical knowledge. InBlown to Bits, experts in computer science address authoritatively the practical issues in which we all have keen interest." Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Author ofMultiple IntelligencesandChanging Minds "Regardless of your experience with computers,Blown to Bitsprovides a uniquely entertaining and informative perspective from the computing in

 

Hal Abelson is Class of 1922 Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, and an IEEE Fellow. He has helped drive innovative educational technology initiatives such MIT OpenCourseWare, cofounded Creative Commons and Public Knowledge, and was founding director of the Free Software Foundation. Ken Ledeen, Chairman/CEO of Nevo Technologies, has served on the boards of numerous technology companies. Harry Lewis, former Dean of Harvard College, is Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard. He is author of Excellence Without a Soul: Does Liberal Education Have a Future? Together, the authors teach Quantitative Reasoning 48, an innovative Harvard course on information for non-technical, non-mathematically oriented students.