Bir Nefeste İnternet Tarihi

by Chris Stokel-Walker, Başak Çatıkkaş (Translator)

İnternet her yerde. Peki ortaya nasıl çıktı? Nasıl değişti? Ve ileride nasıl olacak?

İnsanlık tarihindeki hiçbir gelişme, dünyayı internetin ortaya çıkışı kadar kökten ya da hızlı bir şekilde değiştirmemiştir. İnternetin 21. yüzyıldaki yaşamda şekillendirmediği ya da temelden değiştirmediği neredeyse hiçbir şey yoktur. Fakat internetin geçmişi düşündüğünüzden çok daha uzundur. Temelleri, günlük yaşamın erişilebilir ve kaçınılmaz bir parçası haline gelmesinden onlarca yıl öncesine, ta 1960'lara kadar uzanır.

Çok sevilen Bir Nefeste serisinin bu yeni kitabında yazar ve gazeteci Chris Stokel-Walker, internetin (nispeten) mütevazı başlangıcından bugün her yerde var olan gücüne, e-posta ve çevirmeli bağlantıdan sosyal medya ve metaverse'e kadar izini sürüyor.

Dünya Çapında Ağ'ın nasıl çalıştığına, zaman içinde nasıl değiştiğine ve bildiğimiz dünya üzerindeki etkilerine dair karmaşık kavramların yanı sıra temel terminolojiyi açıklayan ve önemli figürleri ön plana çıkaran bu kitap, çağa yön veren bu teknoloji hakkında bilmeniz gereken her şeyi kısa ve kolayca anlaşılır halinde açıklıyor.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Technology

224 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2024

Reviews

[Andrew]

The History of the Internet in Byte-Sized Chunks, by Chris Stokel-Walker, is an interesting look at the development of the internet at a high level. The book starts with early attempts by the US military and academic institutions in that country to create a system of communications that could withstand a nuclear event. The creation of ARPANET, and its military spin-off, followed. Originally a way for academic institutions to communicate over distance, it quickly branched out over the years to other countries, and eventually, out of the academic sphere. The book looks at a number of concepts that have developed over the last few decades, as the internet went from a fringe technology, to quite a mainstream one. Internet communications (emails, message boards, blogs, vlogs) are explored as they developed, as are concepts like spam, viruses, DDoS and banner ads. Social media, now one of the dominant forces in communication, albeit relatively new, is also examined. The growth of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Youtube and TikTiok are examined, noting that each one was somewhat a disruptor of those that came before. Other large companies and ideas, like online shopping (Amazon) and payment systems (PayPal), are examined. The segmenting of the internet in recent years, as countries move to develop their own control over the space, as opposed to relying on US control of the infrastructure, is also discussed.

This book was interesting. It was light on critique of the existing internet giants (the book was edited by a cofounder of Amazon) and that lack of critique is noticeable, giving the book an uncritical bias toward these large companies. The author does discuss the way media platforms, like Twitter, have influenced politics, and does have some small takes on gig work (Amazon focused) and the mercenary administration of codes of conduct/content moderation by large media companies, but these are small tidbits, possibly by necessity due to the concise nature of the book. Past this critique, the book itself is quite good for a high level overview of the internet. Although I am not a technical expert on internet infrastructure, the overview of how the internet packages data, use of DNS, and how modems/routers work, for example, as well as a brief look at internet cables and the global infrastructure, was quite interesting. This book was largely a good read, and I would easily recommend it for those looking to read more on the internet.

[Becky]

Bought this because it briefly mentions a web community I’m researching for uni. Overall super enjoyable introduction to the internet’s history! Also made me aware of lots of areas I’d like to look further into e.g. experiences of the web outside of the UK. Also this guy loves to describe things as ‘a boon’

[Eben Gardner]

This book was very informative. What I liked most about this book was that it broke down some of what dominated daily life in different segmants of the internet's infancy, before I was born. It painted a picture of this extreme excitement, a race for connectivity, an endless stream of effort in small tid bits. It became clear that for the longest portion of the internets history, there were no tech entrepreneur billionaires. It was just a lot of very excited researchers and engineers, so the book leads me to posit, and it wasn't until Facebook that the more manipulative, dark, algorithmic oversight form of social media that we now suffer from took place. Before then, it was a lot of invention, excitement and problem solving. The buzzing of billions of minds witnessing the verge of the amazing future.

As a Gen Z person, this book may be good for you to read to if you are around my age, as it did really show that so much more was expected. I don't see excitement pretty much anywhere. Just lost souls stuck in the algorithms, or trying to escape the algorithms.

[Renen Hicken]

I was hoping for more of a technical deep dive than a record of mostly social changes, I guess I should have been tipped off by the Ethernet cable on the cover having only 5 conductors.

While the content not entirely a waste of time, the writing is often really annoying. “We’ll meet this character in chapter 5.” “More on that in chapter 5.” “We’ll learn this in chapter 5.” Maybe just move chapter 5.

Percentages are a very useful tool when trying to describe proportions. Directly comparing “6 in 10 people “ to “4 in 5 people” is asinine.

[Jonny Brick]

Takes the reader from the early net through the world wide web through its uses in shopping, romance, snooping and junk. Lots of big names familiar to tech wizards, and the author is one of the best at explaining things to the lay reader. 55,000 words too, with box-outs and images (including ye olde Dancing Baby GIF).

[R]

The contents of the book do live up to its title. Interesting read!

[Ari (Head in a Book)]

A concise, informative look into the internet's history and the potential future of it.
Fascinating, yet certainly ominous.

[James Sawyers]

A nice read if you're in an IT career or just interested in the topic. Good for learning about how our infrastructure developed in to the internet we have today without being overly technical.