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The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google Edition Unstated

by Nicholas Carr (Author)

4.4 287 ratings

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An eye-opening look at the new computer revolution and the coming transformation of our economy, society, and culture.

A hundred years ago, companies stopped producing their own power with steam engines and generators and plugged into the newly built electric grid. The cheap power pumped out by electric utilities not only changed how businesses operated but also brought the modern world into existence. Today a similar revolution is under way. Companies are dismantling their private computer systems and tapping into rich services delivered over the Internet. This time it’s computing that’s turning into a utility. The shift is already remaking the computer industry, bringing new competitors like Google to the fore and threatening traditional stalwarts like Microsoft and Dell. But the effects will reach much further. Cheap computing will ultimately change society as profoundly as cheap electricity did. In this lucid and compelling book, Nicholas Carr weaves together history, economics, and technology to explain why computing is changing―and what it means for all of us.

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While it may seem that we're in the midst of an unprecedented technological transition, Carr (Does IT Matter?) posits that the direction of the digital revolution has a strong historical corollary: electrification. Carr argues that computing, no longer personal, is going the way of a power utility. Manufacturers used to provide their own power (i.e., windmills and waterwheels) until they plugged into the electric grid a hundred years ago. According to Carr, we're in the midst of a similar transition in computing, moving from our own private hard drives to the computer as access portal. Soon all companies and individuals will outsource their computing systems, from programming to data storage, to companies with big hard drives in out-of-the-way places. Carr's analysis of the recent past is clear and insightful as he examines common computing tools that are embedded in the Internet instead of stored on a hard drive, including Google and YouTube. The social and economic consequences of this transition into the utility age fall somewhere between uncertain and grim, Carr argues. Wealth will be further consolidated into the hands of a few, and specific industries, publishing in particular, will perish at the hands of crowdsourcing and the unbundling of content. However, Carr eschews an entirely dystopian vision for the future, hypothesizing without prognosticating. Perhaps lucky for us, he leaves a great number of questions unanswered. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Carr's provocations are destined to influence CEOs and the boards and investors that support them. -- Wall Street Journal

Compulsively readablefor nontechies, tooas it compellingly weaves together news stories, anecdotes, and data. -- Fast Company

Persuasive, well-researched, authoritative and convincing....He's reasonable in his conclusions and moderate in his extrapolations. This is an exceedingly good book. -- Techworld

Quick, clear read on an important theme. -- BusinessWeek

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0393062287
Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; Edition Unstated (January 17, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 276 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780393062281
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393062281
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.22 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.4 x 1 x 9.6 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,483,037 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #212 in Information Theory
- #618 in Human-Computer Interaction (Books)
- #68,018 in Social Sciences (Books)

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4.4 287 ratings

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Nicholas Carr

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Nicholas Carr is a New York Times-bestselling author whose work examines how technology influences people's lives, minds, and relationships. His books, including the Pulitzer Prize finalist "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains," have been translated into more than 25 languages. His new book, "Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart," will be published in January 2025 and is now available for preorders.

A New York Times bestseller when it was first published in 2010 and now hailed as “a modern classic,” "The Shallows" remains a touchstone for debates on technology’s effects on our thoughts and perceptions. A new, expanded edition of "The Shallows" was published in 2020. Carr’s 2014 book "The Glass Cage: Automation and Us," which the New York Review of Books called a “chastening meditation on the human future,” explores the personal and social consequences of our ever growing dependency on computers, robots, and apps. His 2017 book, "Utopia Is Creepy," collects his best essays, blog posts, and other writings from the past dozen years. The collection is “by turns wry and revelatory,” wrote Discover.

Carr is also the author of two other influential books, "The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google" (2008), which the Financial Times called “the best read so far about the significance of the shift to cloud computing,” and the widely discussed and debated "Does IT Matter?" (2004).

Carr has written for many newspapers, magazines, and journals, including the Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Wired, Nature, and MIT Technology Review. His essays, including “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” and “The Great Forgetting,” have been collected in several anthologies, including The Best American Science and Nature Writing, The Best Spiritual Writing, and The Best Technology Writing. He has been a visiting professor of sociology at Williams College in Massachusetts and executive editor of the Harvard Business Review. In 2015, he received the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity from the Media Ecology Association. Since 2005, he has written the popular blog Rough Type. He holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.A., in English and American Literature and Language, from Harvard University.

More information about Carr's work can be found at his website, nicholascarr dot com. [Author photo by Scott Keneally.]

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Customers find the book well-written and easy to understand. They appreciate the historical perspective and informative content about cloud computing. The narrative is engaging with great anecdotes. The book provides a good overview of where we are today and how things are progressing. Overall, customers find the book well-structured and structured.

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Readability Insight Computing power Narrative quality Picture quality Pacing

43 customers mention "Readability"41 positive2 negative

Customers find the book well-written and engaging. They appreciate the clear prose and insightful topics. The first half of the book provides a fun comparison of computer technology evolution, making it a quick read.

"...It was fascinating to read...I found I did not want to put the book down and when I did I wanted to tell my colleagues about it and get their..." Read more

"...my all-time favourites because of his mastery of language, his simplicity of terms, and his ability to spin a network of information into a coherent..." Read more

"...and confined networks to today's World Wide Web is apt and easy to understand...." Read more

"...It's a quick, easy and worthwhile read...." Read more

42 customers mention "Insight"39 positive3 negative

Customers find the book insightful and informative. It provides a historical perspective on technology's evolution and how it has impacted business. The author presents compelling facts and current web developments as clear signals of the pros and cons of advances in technology. The book examines how technology has changed the face of business.

"...I found his book to be based on a series of well documented facts and events that lead us to where the web is today and theories on where we are..." Read more

"...electric utilities possible was a series of scientific and engineering breakthroughs - in electricity generation and transmission as well as in the..." Read more

"...8 months repairing my own 4 defunct macs, this book explains the development of computers and why apps/programs are moving towards the net only...." Read more

"...of cloud computing in an easy to understand format which is quite revealing. Almost the entire last half of the book is dedicated to several..." Read more

14 customers mention "Computing power"12 positive2 negative

Customers find the book an excellent introduction to cloud computing. It explains the technology and history of cloud computing in layman's terms. The author takes a unique approach to computing as a utility, comparing it to electrical utilities in the early 20th century.

"...Computing is also much more modular than electricity generation...." Read more

"...The Big Switch is an excellent introduction to the topic of cloud-computing, especially for the reader who is not a regular consumer of IT material...." Read more

"This book begins with an interesting history of the impact of electricity and then shifts to providing insight into where we're headed with..." Read more

"...He describes the technology and history of cloud, and the utility model of cloud, in layman's terms that are easy for the new student to this topic...." Read more

10 customers mention "Narrative quality"10 positive0 negative

Customers find the narrative compelling and well-written. They appreciate the great anecdotes and research data to support the stories.

"...I found his book to be based on a series of well documented facts and events that lead us to where the web is today and theories on where we are..." Read more

"...may have read or heard elsewhere, but the book lays out a good high level history of the progress made through industrialization to the cloud...." Read more

"Broad ranging and loosely constructed into a compelling narrative what is amazing is the ability to construct a readable, if often, factually..." Read more

"...A unique approach to computing as a utility. I love the history stories in the book." Read more

5 customers mention "Picture quality"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book provides a good overview of where we are today and where things are going. They find it fascinating to see how we're paralleling the change in electrification.

"Nick Carr does an amazing job painting a picture that compares the electrification of the modern world to the developing world where compute power..." Read more

"...of questions about recent advances in computing technology and paints a clear picture of where we are today..." Read more

"...I work in the legal technology field and found it a fascinating look how we're paralleling the change of the industrial revolution with..." Read more

"Well-written book with a very view of where things were going" Read more

3 customers mention "Pacing"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's pacing relevant and well-constructed. They enjoy reading it and appreciate its reliability and efficiency.

"...They'll need to achieve new levels of security, reliability, and efficiency...." Read more

"Well written and well structured. I enjoyed the reading...." Read more

"...between the technology advancement "jumps" are very relevant and well-constructed...." Read more

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T. L. Flynn
Take the guess work out of the cloud
Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2010
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As I went to read the The Big Switch by Nicholas Carr, I found myself a bit skeptical of what he would write and how he would possibly bend truths to make a point. I couldn't have been more wrong. I found his book to be based on a series of well documented facts and events that lead us to where the web is today and theories on where we are going tomorrow with the cloud/world wide computer. It was fascinating to read...I found I did not want to put the book down and when I did I wanted to tell my colleagues about it and get their perspectives...and to also share with my cutomers so they can see the evolution and future of the web as well. I have and will continue to recommend others read this book to give perspective and understanding of again where have been and what the possibilities and probablities are in the future. Definitely a thumbs up!

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O. Halabieh
Account of Utility Computing!
Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2013
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Below are key excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:

1- "What made large-scale electric utilities possible was a series of scientific and engineering breakthroughs - in electricity generation and transmission as well as in the design of electric motors - but what ensured their triumph was not technology but economics."

2- "At a purely economic level, the similarities between electricity and information technology are even more striking. Both are what economists call general purpose technologies...they can both be delivered efficiently over a network."

3- "If the electric dynamo was the machine that fashioned twentieth-century society - that made us who we are - the information dynamo is the machine that will fashion the new society of the twenty-first century."

4- "What the fiber-optic Internet does for computing is exactly what the alternating current network did for electricity: it makes the location of the equipment unimportant to the user. But it does more than that. Because the internet has been designed to accommodate any type of computer and any form of digital information, it also plays the role of Insull's rotary converter: it allows disparate and formerly incompatible machines to operate together as a single system. It creates harmony out of a cacophony. By providing a universal medium for data transmission and translation, the Net is spurring the creation of centralized computing plants that can serve thousands or millions of customers simultaneously. What companies used to have no choice but to supply themselves, they can now purchase as a service for a simple fee. And that means they can finally free themselves from their digital millwork."

5- "It will take many years for the utility computing system to mature. Like Edison and Insull before them, the pioneers of the new industry will face difficult business and technical challenges. They'll need to figure out the best ways to meter and set prices for different kinds of services. They'll need to become more adept at balancing loads and managing diversity factors as demand grows. They'll need to work with governments to establish effective regulatory regimes. They'll need to achieve new levels of security, reliability, and efficiency. Most daunting of all they'll need to convince big companies to give up control over their private systems and begin to dismantle the data centers into which they've plowed so much money. But these challenges will be met just as they were met before. The economics of computing have changed, and it's the new economics that are now guiding progress. the PC age is giving way to a new era: the utility age."

6- "Virtualization allows companies - or the utilities that serve them - to regain the high capacity utilization that characterized the mainframe age while gaining even more flexibility that they had during the PC age. It offers the best of both worlds."

7- "Some of the old-line companies will succeed in making the switch to the new model of computing; others will fail. But all of them would be wise to study the examples of General Electric and Westinghouse. A hundred years ago, both these companies were making a lot of money selling electricity production components and systems to individual companies. That business disappeared as big utilities took over electricity supply. But GE and Westinghouse were able to reinvent themselves. They became leading suppliers of generators and other equipment to the new utilities, and they also operated or invested in utilities themselves. Most important of all, they built vast new businesses supplying electric appliances to consumers - businesses that only became possible after the arrival of large scale electric utilities."

8- "When applications have no physical form, when they can be delivered as digital services over a network, the constraints disappear. Computing is also much more modular than electricity generation. Not only can applications be provided by different utilities, but even the basic building blocks of computing - data storage, data processing, data transmission - can be broken up into different services supplied from different locations by different companies. Modularity reduces the likelihood that the new utilities will form service monopolies, and it gives us, as the users of utility computing, a virtually unlimited array of options."

9- "Not only will the Internet tend to divide people with different views, in other words, it will also tend to magnify the differences."

10- "All technological change is generational change. The full power and consequence of a new technology are unleashed only when those who have grown up with it become adults and begin to push their outdated parents to the margins. As the older generations die, they take with them their knowledge of what was lost when the new technology arrived, and only the sense of what was gained remains. It's in this way that progress covers its tracks, perpetually refreshing the illusion that where we are is where we were meant to be."

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Michael S.
Fantastic Writing
Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2021
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The author must now be in the top 10% of my all-time favourites because of his mastery of language, his simplicity of terms, and his ability to spin a network of information into a coherent package. I have not read this author before but will investigate his other works. Having just spent 8 months repairing my own 4 defunct macs, this book explains the development of computers and why apps/programs are moving towards the net only. Scary good. Sometimes stopping and smelling the roses means taking what little spare time you have and read books like this--both enlightening and time saving. Kudos to the author.

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Valerie Ellis
Good narrative, weak in practicality
Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2011
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The Big Switch is primarily a two-fold narrative concerning the transformation of two technological innovations into broad-based utilities: electrical power and the Internet. Carr divides his book into two parts. The first utilizes the historical development of electrical power as a case study to compare and contrast against the development and future of the Internet. Tracing Edison's belief in local networks of power and unique commodities that he could sell to facilitate those networks to Insull's vision of electricity as a common utility, Carr's comparison to the Internet developing from localized and confined networks to today's World Wide Web is apt and easy to understand. The first section ends with a chapter-long description of the societal changes brought about by widespread electricity, including the shift from trade-based work to knowledge workers and the de facto creation of the educated, white collar, middle class.

The second section discusses the economic and social issues associated with the Internet's potential in terms of becoming the dominant platform for commerce, technological innovation, and social interaction. It begins with a chapter describing the benefits provided to society by the programmable Internet or the cloud of networked computers, which Carr calls the "World Wide Computer" (Carr, 2008, p. 118) throughout the book. While this chapter is intensely positive in its outlook, that is not a feeling that is continued beyond this chapter.

The remainder of the section is comprised of four chapters, each alluding to a socially-negative result caused by the Internet. Chapter 7 details the overall reduction in the necessary global workforce as computers and networked capabilities multiply a single worker's efforts and the corresponding enlargement of the socioeconomic gap between upper and lower classes. Chapter 8 describes how Internet commodities divide society into increasingly isolated consumer groups, fueling increasing points of connection for people but largely along the lines of homogeneous thoughts and beliefs. Carr uses the example of a politically-motivated blog, which gathers primarily those who agree with the blogger's position and rally around criticism for those of the opposite political persuasion, who in turn have their own blogs and followers and vitriol.

Chapter 9 points out the vulnerabilities of an Internet still very much a target for vandalism, abuse, and terrorism. Chapter 10 describes the diminished privacy that accompanies a more networked world. It is within this chapter that Carr employs a particular journalistic tone while he merely describes the problem without making any public policy recommendations as solutions. The final chapter of the book concerns artificial intelligence and the singularity--the point at which human and computer consciousness become one entity. Within this discussion is an anthology of man's efforts to achieve artificial intelligence, though the implications of such a feat are not fully discussed or analyzed.

Just three years removed from being published, The Big Switch offers little in terms of new knowledge, a common downfall for books written about technology. Those in the Information Technology (IT) field are likely already making the switch from the client-server model to the web-based or utility-based model. Where Carr might offer forecasts or implications of such a transition, he often offers only questions. In fact, Carr more often than not presents only a winding discussion and rarely provides analysis, evaluation, or practical application. As a result, it is sometimes difficult to identify Carr's feelings toward the cloud-based model. For the first half of the book, the reader is led to think that just as electricity revolutionized the world for the better, so will moving the Internet to the cloud. However, the second half of the book is dystopian in nature and tone.

The Big Switch has several shortcomings. Carr's technological observations are superficial and tend to favor those companies--like Google--who already operate with a heavy reliance on the cloud-based functionality of the Internet. Cloud-based computing still has serious drawbacks, while application-streaming to local machines, and virtualization, are still viable contenders for future market share. Carr's comparison between electricity and the Internet as a utility is entertaining but does not hold up to scrutiny. As disruptions to the global power grid caused by natural disaster and its vulnerability to terrorism are better understood, the national power grid is frequently compensated for by companies building their own power plants or relying on alternative sources of power. Finally, the last chapter about artificial intelligence reflects a lack of well-rounded research and documentation. In general, the book seems to favor sources that support his argument, but the last chapter--seemingly disjointed from the rest of the book--lacks in-depth investigation and support.

Carr's narrative is clearly his strength, and through it one finds some solid observations. As other technology and innovation writers, Carr points out that continued adoption and innovation has forced a steep separation between upper and lower classes, threatening the existence of the middle class. Those with resources, access, and education will be able to take advantage of the cloud-based model for business and social interaction. Those without those capabilities will compete for low-income jobs increasingly threatened by globalization.

The Big Switch is an excellent introduction to the topic of cloud-computing, especially for the reader who is not a regular consumer of IT material. In particular, the analogy of the Internet working as a utility as does the power grid is insightful and helpful. At its core however, it is only that: an introduction. The book's disconnected tone, unanswered questions, and limited technological viewpoint reduce this book to that of a primer, best read before reading more comprehensive works on the subject.

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Xavier Cunha
Good book but not fantastic
Reviewed in Spain on October 30, 2024
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Good book but not fantastic

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Giorgio
Just... great!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 20, 2022
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Great book, it was one of my first purchases on Amazon (14 years ago!) and I went back to it for quotes uncountable times since then. Gives a great perspective on technology and human evolution.

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Nikita I.
Very good for non-technical people
Reviewed in Germany on September 29, 2018
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A very good book which gives an overview about how technology changes our lives. It is written in a very clear manner so that a reader who is not deeply involved into the matter will understand. The author did a big research. This book is a definitemust-read!

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Michel
Deep focus on business changes
Reviewed in Brazil on January 19, 2015
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The authoe explained on an easy way of how complete markets changed when the technology evolves. Going from electricity to Henry Ford and now how cloud computing is changing the way we work and how we interact with each other.

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Ari.s.
interessante
Reviewed in Italy on July 9, 2016
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interessante e piacevole da leggere. specie nella seconda parte sono toccate tematica attuali e riesce a far riflettere su aspetti a volte sottovalutati.
assolutamente consigliato

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5.0 out of 5 stars Take the guess work out of the cloud

4.0 out of 5 stars Account of Utility Computing!

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Writing

3.0 out of 5 stars Good narrative, weak in practicality

Top reviews from other countries

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book but not fantastic

5.0 out of 5 stars Just... great!

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good for non-technical people

4.0 out of 5 stars Deep focus on business changes

4.0 out of 5 stars interessante

Take the guess work out of the cloud

Account of Utility Computing!

Fantastic Writing

Good narrative, weak in practicality

Good book but not fantastic

Just... great!

Very good for non-technical people

Deep focus on business changes

interessante