Digerati Pb [Paperback]

John Brockman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 16, 1998

A fascinating collection of interviews with the leading figures in the "digerati", who dominate the digital revolution, from Bil Gates to esther Dyson, from John Perry Barlow to Jaron Lanier. Following the successful format of his THE THIRD CULTURE, Brockman's interviewees discuss their ideas and comment on each other, their allies, enemies and competitors.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

From August 1995 through April 1996, John Brockman recorded conversations with 36 of the most important architects and developers of today's cyberspace. Those conversations have been condensed into this book, as Brockman's "digerati" discuss their work, their visions, and each other. We readers get the joy of listening to these fascinating people speak--sometimes from their well-polished soapboxes and sometimes with their guards down. Many of these people we know from their writings, but there's a fresh rhythm and excitement to their words when they come from their mouths instead of their word processors. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 372 pages
• Publisher: Orion Business (February 16, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0752811789
• ISBN-13: 978-0752811789
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,675,290 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The founder and publisher of the on-line science salon Edge.org, John Brockman is the editor of THIS WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING, WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?, WHAT WE BELIEVE BUT CANNOT PROVE. He is the CEO of the literary agency Brockman Inc. and lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mutual appreciation society?, May 11, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Digerati: Encounters With the Cyber Elite (Hardcover)

Scanning through the list of interviewees alone should guarantee that you don't buy this book to find out more about how the Net came to be. None of the people here built the Net. There's no interview with Tim Berners-Lee, no Marc Andreesen, no Bob Metcalfe, no bob Taylor, no Vince Cerf.The people who wrote the tools that made CMC possible aren't here, their thoughts (what was TBL thinking when he decided the WWW would be a "good idea") aren't represented here. What you have are a series of interviews with commentators for the most part.

Keeping Brockman's media background in mind, this isn't surprising, you'd expect to find publishers, authors, journalists in here, and they do make for interesting reading, some of them even know what they're talking about. But one sorely misses the actual creators of the Net. The guys who write MOOs, forged SMTP and IRC, who created the medium we operate in. The book comes off as another case of intellectual masturbation. Brockman feels it's necessary to turn around every two sentences and wax pathetic on the glory of art and artists. All of this gets really annoying after a while. You want to tell him to shut up and get on with it. Then there's his really obnoxious attempt to create allegory. I'm sure Chaucer and Tolkien are turning in their graves with the idiotic titles Brockman feels compelled to bestow on each of his interviewees. The book is really wierd in that the center of attention oscillates between Brockman's relationship with these people, the people themselves, and their ideas about cyberspace. None of it comes off as being particularly polished. I wish Brockman had cut out his own little comments and name-dropping (his introductions read like long reminiscences by a New York intellectual of gatherings where "ideas flew around the table" a phrase he comes dangerously close to using. He actually feels he's part of a new Algonquin, well Brockman you just don't have the wit for it, and you got to be a lot harsher and sharper if you expect to survive with Ms. Parker). Then there's the equally annoying collection of foot-notes after each essay, a two/three line comment from other people in the book talking about the current interviewee. The only thing those are good for is highlighting just how unimaginative Bill Gates really is.

The interviews themselves are not bad (except ftror the industry types who find it necessary to talk about their own company's "strategies", whether this be AOL, Sun or MS it becomes tiring), some of them are even quite entertaining, with some very interesting concepts being introduced by some of the people. I gave the book a 6 because some of the people interviewed had really interesting perspectives on CMC, and I may not have encountered them since I can't read so many full-length books on this topic. So the collection of esssays idea itself was good, I just wish Brockman would have kept himself, and his touchy-feely emotions for these people out of it. he's not a society writer, and can't handle that genre. He might want to work on keeping his "I'm a New York intellectual and I look really stupid flaunting it, but I don't know I'm doing that" persona out of the way too. On the whole, it was mostly a botched up editing job, and too much of the director coming into camera focus (even Hitchcock knew he could only make one appearance). I'm not saying the artist should pervade the work, or even that it's possible for the artist to _not_ seep into the work. There are ways to do that which come off very elegantly. The book is still maybe worth reading if you want a quick intro some of the thoughts these people have.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Digerati: An intellectual vacuum?, December 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Digerati: Encounters With the Cyber Elite (Hardcover)

I happened to check the book out from the library, so I am happy to say I did not waste any money on it. Some books are readable and interesting. Other books may be readable and boring. Unfortunately this book is unreadable, owing to an idiotic typography that acts as a constant visual hiccup, so the issue of interest or boredom is barely relevant. From the few pages I did go through before giving up in disgust -- and with a headache -- I can only say that rarely have I read someone so ignorant of culture, so poor in intellect, and having so much pretensions to a high brow culture. Maybe Brockman thinks that it brushes off on him just by rubbing shoulders with some more or less "famous" people. In his case it clearly does not.

Bottom line - unreadable, empty, and pretentious.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Brockman's books are great jumping off points, not great destinations, March 22, 2008

By 

M. Roberts "eat,paddle, love" (second cubicle on the left..) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Digerati: Encounters With the Cyber Elite (Hardcover)

I think that the best way to look at John Brockman and his books about his buddies ( I think that another reviewer here was right on the money when he refered to Brockman and his edge.org cronies as a 'mutual admiration society') I've thought the same things ever since I started reading his works and his website... Don't get me wrong, these are very smart people...just not as singularly brilliant as Brockman seems to think they are...the best thing you could do, if you want to really plumb the depths of thought that these people offer, is to google or search this site for other works by them: "Digerati" only gives you the most shallow view of what they are about.