Telecosm: The World After Bandwidth Abundance [Paperback]

George Gilder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 23, 2002

The guru of high technology and a man whose "slightest utterance can move stocks" (The Wall Street Journal) presents a clear, cogent vision of the future of telecommunications; what it will mean in our everyday lives; and how savvy investors can get on the bandwagon today.

With his books (including the groundbreaking Microcosm), top-selling newsletter, testimony before Congress, and annual Telecosm conferences, George Gilder has become the premier prophet of bandwidth and connectivity. In this revised version of Telecosm, Gilder takes technology buffs and investors on a mind-bending tour inside the worldwide webs of glass and light, explaining how fiber optics and wireless breakthroughs are pushing new technologies and new companies to the fore.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Newt Gingrich The Washington Times George Gilder's new book Telecosm will become "must reading" for everyone who wants to know what comes after the computer-Internet revolution.

David Gelernter National Review Over the last decade hundreds of books have investigated this fast-changing landscape-which underlies the future of the Internet, the web, and computers in general, of phones and TV and communication and culture; Gilder's is one of two or three that are indispensable...Telecosm is one of the best technology books I have ever read.

The Economist Even sceptics would do well to read Telecosm...Mr. Gilder's messianic intensity and relentless optimism exert a grip on the reader that never lets go. You may not understand everything in Telecosm, but it may change your mind in unexpected ways.

Blair Levin The Washington Monthly The book is a masterful, and highly readable, review of the science, technology, and companies that are changing the landscape of communications...Gilder's overview of the emerging landscape is the best I've read.

Edward Rothstein The New York Times If, for some, Mr. Gilder's pronouncements have the weight of Scripture, it is not just because they promise untold this-worldly benefits...Forget the mundane: in the new age, cloaked in wings of light, we Gilderites will dwell in telecosmic utopia.

About the Author

George Gilder is a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute, where he directs the programme on high technology and public policy. He is also a contributing editor of Forbes magazine, and a frequent writer for the Economist, Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal and other publications. His previous books include Microcosm and Wealth and Poverty.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (April 23, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743205472
• ISBN-13: 978-0743205474
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,077 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An Outdated Piece of .com Junk, August 19, 2003

By 

Kelly Pierce (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Telecosm: The World After Bandwidth Abundance (Paperback)

While this book is extremely well written, it is outdated now in 2003. This book is filled with the hype, euphoria, and speculative promises of the .com era. Yes, the writing sizzzles and many of the stories are interesting, but the writing seems to lack a firm foundation of fundemental research and the stories when read carefully seem to be re-written from third party accounts rather than the result of original research, interviews, and fact finding. Somehow, Wired Magazine articles are better than this.

10 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Let there be light, May 30, 2002

By 

B.Sudhakar Shenoy (India) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Telecosm: The World After Bandwidth Abundance (Paperback)

IT Strategy studies and deployment of solutions was my area of interest during the last decade. In most cases, especially while dealing with businesses that are geographically dispersed, connectivity has played a key role in deciding on the solution set. Trade off between centralized vs. de-centralized structures, TCO, maintainability and application response times on WAN have been crucial factors in decision making. Going by Eliyahu Goldratt's "Theory of Constraints", it is not difficult to guess that bandwidth availability and costs have dictated the boundaries of IT architectures. The "Last Mile Problem" used to sound like the last post. Not anymore, even in developing countries if Telecosm becomes a global reality. With abundance of cheap bandwidth we are entering a new era in IT Solutions. If Microcosm could pack computing power far exceeding the power of legacy mainframes on the PC sitting on our desks, Telecosm is about distributing this power from the center of the network to the peripheral devices. The ethernet card connecting the "teleputer" dissolves into the World Wide Web; World Wide Wait is eliminated by World Wide Waves. "The Network is the Computer".

Microcosm has multiplied Computing power and Storage and divided costs by million folds. Connectivity between these massive and powerful systems has not kept pace during this phase. Better late than never, enter Telecosm. Fiber and Satellites using light and electromagnetic waves transfer information across the globe at Petabit rates. This paradigm shift in communications is bound to have profound effects on business and society. We will soon be wasting bandwidth as we are now wasting transistors on our processors. Gilder narrates this phenomenon very well.

After reading the first 3 chapters of the book, I decided to revisit my college books on Quantum Physics- Planck's Constant, Wave Theory, Speed of light, Schroedinger's equation come in handy to really appreciate the power of Telecosm. For ready reference the book provides an excellent glossary of all technical terms that help have a quick recap. I would appreciate if the next edition contains detailed notes on concepts like WDM, CDMA and Packet Switching in the appendix.

The future looks so bright that I foresee a global scarcity of sunglasses! But we still have a problem on hand- the limitation imposed by the speed of light. But if God created light, we need to urge with him to create something that is faster. That will need different lines of communication not discussed in this book. Till then, let there be light!