Customer Reviews

Soft Edge:Nat Hist&Future Info

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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

After a long search, I selected this as the best book available for providing a historical overview of the social effects of electronic communication media for my college course, "The Information Age." The author clearly identifies the various types of technology: audio, visual, multimedia, and he does a nice job of assessing the impact of these individually and in combination. The latter third of the book becomes increasingly confusing, however, as he attempts to extend today's technologies into the future and predict their effects. My students found the book very interesting, and the author's ideas generated quite a bit of discussion.

I enjoyed reading The Soft Edge. I found Levinson to be a little long in his summations. I also found that his first two chapters were confusing. I was not sure of his direction or the purpose of his book. His use of mini-headings in each chapter did make each subject easier to understand. I would highly recommend this book for research in other classes. I have already used it. I did find his use of quotes from other authors leaving me wanting more. He used them to prove his arguments. Without more from that author, I was not able to accept or decline his argument. I believe his weakest part was on the future of technology. Levinson gives a great history and analysis on the impact. I found his analysis on the future small and quite unassuming.

This book asks many interesting questions about the history and future of media. Examples include:

1. Why did the sight-only medium of silent movies get wiped out completely by "talkies" while the sound-only medium of radio survived television?

2. The most powerful leaders of the past 150 years were Churchill, Roosevelt, Hitler, and Stalin. Was this power due to the nature of radio as a medium, and the fact that radio flowered when they were prominent?

3. Is centralized authority in media necessary (because people need "gatekeepers" to filter information for them) or a result of the economics of mass media (the high cost of sending radio signals compared to the low cost of receiving them)?

4. Does information want to be free?

Levinson's answers are not always as good as his questions. His explanation for the survival of radio (as a medium you can use while doing something else) was persuasive. His view that the leaders of WWII drew their power from radio was less compelling.

Levinson's view of the decentralization effects of computers is valid. The opposite view, which is widely held, is a serious misconception.

Otherwise, when discussing the future, Levinson is disappointing. He says less than what can be found in other work that predates his book. The issue of the future of paper is discussed better in some of George Gilder's articles in Forbes ASAP, going back to 1994. The issue of how to pay for information is discussed better in Brad Cox's work on what he calls "superdistribution." The issue of the status of artificial life is discussed better in Steven Levy's book on that subject.

If I were teaching a course on the Internet, I would include "The Soft Edge" as background reading early in the course. It would help students start to think about the evolution of media.

THE SOFT EDGE by Paul Levinson is an amazing look at communications technology throughout time, and how they have had surprising and unexpected consequences -- for example how the invention of the printing press was responsible for the discovery of America (or at least for people in Europe to find out about Columbus's voyages) and the Age of Exploration and why the idea of one God didn't take hold until the Hebrews with their alphabet, and many other such fascinating examples. Then the author shows us why silent movies disappeared when talking pictures arrived but radio is still doing well even though we have television. And lots of other insights and observations about things we use every day and rarely think about. This book should be required reading for all people who want to understand the Internet -- especially parents and teachers -- and why we shouldn't be so afraid of what's out there. Professor Levinson is a great writer, and this is a terrific book.

Paul Levinson asks interesting questions about the history and future of media. Examples include:

Was the invention of alphabetic writing necessary before an abstract religion of monotheism could take root?

Was a printing press needed to make public education economical?

Why did radio (sound with images) survive TV, while silent movies were obliterated by movies with sound?

The most powerful leaders in this century were Hitler, Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt. Was it a coincidence that they came to power in the age of radio?

As other amazon reviewers have noted, Levinson's analysis of the future seems less compelling. For me, part of the problem is that he seems to be unaware of some previous writing on critical topics. For example, Levinson's discussion of intellectual property and ownership could have benefitied from familiarity with Brad Cox's work on Superdistribution or Varian and Shapiro's book "Information Rules." And the issue of artificial life is discussed more fully in the book with that title by Steven Levy.

Overall, I think this book provides a solid background in media for a course on the Internet.

This book is a reply to the technological pessimists such as Ellul and Postman who see technology as dehumanizing. Levinson convincingly argues that technology is not dehumanizing in itself and indeed succeeds in establishing itself when it is matched to human forms of activities.

The title 'Soft Edge' is a comment on the ideas of technological determinism. Hard determinism is the view that technology contains within itself the means to dictate how it will be sued in society. Soft determinism is the view that technology can only influence the direction of how it will be used. Levinson seems to go even further by arguing that technology and human society co-evolve and that technology that is not amenable to successful human use will be eliminated. Successful technology is absorbed into the human fabric and new technology demonstrates its fitness in the natural selection process of this co-evolution by demonstrating its fitness to serve human needs.

Levinson clearly points out that this co-evolution does not necessarily have beneficial ends. It opens possibilities whereby both human good and human evil can flourish. It is a human choice as to which one - good or evil - will predominate. Levinson shows how the power of radio to create close personal contact benefited both the evil of Hitler and the virtue of Roosevelt. Each in their own way touched the feelings of their populations personally. Radio, in part, created the conditions whereby politicians of their respective sorts could lead. It was human choice and not technological determinism that allowed each to flourish.

This book contains important ideas that do much to refute the popular pessimism of the current day. It is well worth reading. However the style in which the book is written makes this a tedious exercise. It is difficult to follow the argument due to the incessant asides with only partially pertinent observations. It appears that instead of using footnotes, Levinson strung supporting observations and references in line in the text.

The main argument is obscured when it is broken up constantly with pages of observations that only marginally illustrate it. It is even worse when there is obvious carelessness in the presentations of the supporting commentaries and when obvious errors are made that hinder significantly its credibility. Special relativity is used as an example of the use of non-Euclidean geometry. Alexander Graham Bell is stated to have developed the telephone in one passage as part of a search for a hearing aid for his wife and correctly in another as an attempt to develop a harmonic telegraph. The explorer Jacques Cartier is misnamed Jean Cartier. This book needed a good editor. However in one of his innumerable asides, Levinson gives a lengthy account of the reason that he does not overly revise his work. He should change his mind on that.

Despite these flaws this is a good book with important ideas that bears close reading. I recommend it.

The book provides a good historical account of infomation and technology, and the powers and problems it creates. The analysis provided is shody, and unsupported. As the book progresses and shifts from history to current and future analysis, it becomes empty. This book was a disapointment for me - good early promise, weak delivery.

An enormously insightful panorama and investigation into the past, present and future evolution of information technology. The author looks at the impact of IT on society and the history of media of all types, from the introduction of the alphabet over hieroglyphics, to the photo-electronic revolution, to the age of computers and creation of the Web. The book concludes with ideas for the future, including ways to protect intellectual property, ethics, and ultimate possibilities for artificial intelligence. This is a work of both depth and breadth. For those who crave the macro/global perspective of the world, this book will be a fascinating find. Bibliography. HIGHLY recommended. Reviewed with great interest by Gerry Stern, founding partner, Stern & Associates and HRconsultant.com.

Intial chapters on the history of writing as a techonlogy were captivating. But the book quickly fades into conjecture and irrelevance as he moves on to current and future technologies - similar to any of the dozens of other books proclaiming a deeper understanding of the meaning of Internet, or the future of information technology. Overall I wouldn't recommend this.

In this book, Levinson argues that information needs to be to the point and delivered concisely. If only he'd practice what he preaches. The information is solid and well researched, but it is presented in such an overly verbose, rambling manner that it is totally unreadable.