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The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at M. I. T. Paperback – September 3, 1988

by Stewart Brand (Author)

4.1 12 ratings

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Provides a look at the future as it is envisioned by the Media Lab at MIT, where scientists are retooling mass media to the desires and whims of the individual

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The creator-editor of the Whole Earth Catalog offers a close-up view of what research scientists at MIT's Media Lab are dreaming up for the coming century. "This is visionary material," declared PW , "demanding reading even for those knowledgeable about the communications revolution." Photos.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; Reprint edition (September 3, 1988)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0140097015
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0140097016
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7 x 1 x 5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,925,118 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5,744 in Communication & Media Studies
- #48,839 in Computers & Technology (Books)

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4.1 12 ratings

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Lessa Bouchard
Never received it
Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2024
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Alas- I never received it. I know it’s a great book. I will keep looking!

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Robert Pratte
A worthwhile addition to the history of computing
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2006
As many reviewers have already noted, this book is a bit of a mixed bag. While the specific technologies and predictions seem a bit dated, Brand's insightful analysis and excellent presentation make this an enjoyable and informative read.

There is one characteristic of this text that doesn't appear to be mentioned by other reviewers, however, and that is its "time capsule" aspect. That is, Brand does a pretty good job of transporting the reader "back" to the mid-late 80s, when the book was written. Not only are the technologies indicators of the time, but the socio-political landscape as well (at least as far as I remember it). I think that, for today's reader, Brand's excellent explorations of the impact of Reaganomics, Japan's usurping of American manufacturing, the globalizing impact of technology, etc. provide tremendous value.

I think that it is a somewhat rare thing for an author to so wholly encapsulate a time such that the later reader can access the notions and movements of an age so effectively. Brand provides such a rare glimpse in this work - a time portal back to the mid-80s, if you will. As a chapter in the history of computing, I think that most will agree that this work is a worthwhile addition. I suspect that most readers will also find this an interesting trip back to an earlier time.

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Amazon Customer
Mixed Bag
Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2004
In 1986, Brand made an extended visit to the Media Lab at MIT to get an idea of what the future might hold. While there, he saw working prototypes of new communications technologies and the issues they raise, including personalized newspapers and video news, fast personal connections to the Internet using ISDN, HDTV and globalization. The book is organized into two parts: The World of the Media Lab, in which Brand describes the main projects underway at the Media Lab while he was there, and Life in Parallel, in which he relates some of the projects to overarching issues that may become prominent in the future (keeping in mind he was writing in the 1980s). Interspersed in the text are black-and-white photos of some of the key players at the Media Lab in 1986. There is also a section of color images from some of the Lab projects. At the end of the book are found a short bibliography and an index.

Brand's material is almost twenty years old now. The sections in which he discussed the historical development of the Media Lab or its projects remain relevant for today's readers. But unfortunately, a great deal of the book was an attempt to look into the future; hence it became outdated as prediction almost as soon as it was written. What's quite interesting today, however, is to see that almost every project that Brand predicts will have some chance of success has actually become commonplace today. For prediction, that's an incredible track record. Did Brand achieve this by sticking only to cutting edge technologies, those that were just on the very edge of leaving the lab for the real world? Were there other projects at the time that Brand didn't choose to write about here because they were obviously going nowhere? It would be a an interesting project to look back to see the actual status of these projects at the time.

I picked up this book because I was interested in learning more about the culture of the Media Lab. In my own years at MIT, the Lab certainly had a reputation for the uniqueness of its faculty and for attracting students who were highly original as well as capable. It was hard to learn more about the Lab, however, unless you were a part of it. This book, with its emphasis on predicting future technologies, didn't real satisfy my curiosity about the Media Lab. The book contains a few interviews with leading figures in the lab such as Andy Lippman and Danny Hills. But the interviews don't quite succeed at conveying the personalities of these people along with their viewpoints. Instead, they seem to add to the feeling that this book is a personal record of the variety of experiences Brand encountered during his visit.

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Matthew M. Liggett
History provides insight, but specific projects are dated.
Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2000
If you've always wondered what the hoopla over the Media Lab was all about, this book can help fill in the blanks. It covers the basics about the founding of the lab and provides a little biographical background on people like Negroponte and Minsky.
However, a large portion of the book is spent describing specific projects, many of which are obviously a little out of date. Don't get the wrong idea, though. These projects were obviously very exciting when new. Further, some of the projects still seem so far out that I would not be surprised to see them announced as new research in 2000!
All in all, recommended. But perhaps you're better off skimming a copy from your local library than buying this one. That's why 3 stars instead of 4.

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Jeremy Walton
Days of future passed
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 25, 2021
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I picked this up after re-reading Nicholas Negroponte's "Being Digital" late last year. Negroponte was founder of The Media Lab at MIT, and this book (first published in 1987) is a survey of the work and ideas of that institution at (what could perhaps be thought of as) the dawn of the digital age: when the Internet was still an academic tool, before the WWW made it accessible to all; when cassettes were being replaced by CDs, before music completely lost its physical manifestation and turned into something that could be pulled out of the air; when film studios were embracing videocassettes as a distribution medium, before the switch from atoms to bits.

In spite of the vast (in techonological reckoning) period of time since its publication, this is still a fascinating read, since much of the work that the Lab was doing at the time in computing and communications has come to fruition in our everyday life. To pick one example, a section on the benefits of CD-ROM suggests that it's ideally suited for "those specialized multivolume reference works and subscription services that are so expensive, so bulky and often so complexly indexed that wrestling it into the headquarters library is worthy of mention in the annual report" [p23].

A second section attempts to tease out the implications of technology developments for our society - for example, something which is introduced here as the information economy. There are fascinating early attempts to draw distinctions between - for example - selling a physical object (after which you have it and I don't) and selling information (after which we both have it).

Despite its age, this is still worth reading, if only as a reminder of how far we've come, and what the future looked like it could turn out to be back then.

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Checker-Bunny
The Media Lab - Eine analoge Zeitreise in die digitale Vergangenheit
Reviewed in Germany on January 28, 2016
Verified Purchase
Wie sah die Welt eigentlich aus, bevor man im Jahr 2016 mit 8000er DSL daheim eine Produkt-Rezension auf seinem Macbook tippen konnte?
Der Autor Stewart Brand hat sich um 1980 zu der Geburtsstätte vieler digitaler Kommunikationsmittel begeben.
Das MIT oder Massachusetts Institute of Technology (kann man eigentlich "Massachusetts" aussprechen ohne komisch zu klingen?)
hat zu dieser Zeit ein Labor gegründet, welches durch private Finanziers wie Apple, IBM und CBS mit Forschungsgeldern ausgestattet wurde,
um die digitale Kommunikation zu erforschen und auch teilweise neu zu erfinden.

Der Autor stellt sich oft dümmer als er ist, doch beschert er seinen Berichten damit eine gewisse Lockerheit.
Diese Lockerheit ergibt sich während der Lektüre im Jahr 2016 (oder meinetwegen auch früher) ohnehin, weil man sich dabei oft dämlich schmunzelt erwischt, weil in Kapitel 7 von der zukünftigen Videotelefonie (riesiger Telefonapparat mit eingesteckter Kreditkarte) geschwärmt wird, die es aber so nie gegeben hat, weil zum Glück irgendwann Skype da war.

Diese immer wiederkehrende Zeitreise, die Prognosen des Autors, wie sich gewisse Erfindungen auf die Gesellschaft auswirken werden und die die Einblicke in Wirtschaft und Forschung von damals, lassen einen auf 328 Seiten immer wieder fasziniert umblättern und 4 Sterne in der Bewertung vergeben. Ich kann dieses Buch allen technisch (halbwegs) begeisterten Menschen empfehlen, vor allem dann, wenn man wie ich, diese Lektüre für nur 80 Cent und 3€ Versand (Wucher!) erwerben kann.

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pdel
What's important to know ? Everything in this book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 2, 2020
Verified Purchase
In the age of fake news, Facebook, digital media and everything that seems to be a constant in the news cycle today it seems extraordinary that this book was written before the internet ever entered all our lives but it was - and 33 years later almost every page will have you gasping at the prescience of both the author and his interviewees. If you haven't before - you should read it now.

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