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Microcosm: The Quantum Revolution In Economics And Technology
From Simon & Schuster, Microcosm is the provocative national bestseller by the author of Wealth and Poverty .
George Gilder's Microcosm is the crystal ball of the next technological era. Leading scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs provide vivid accounts of the latest inventions, revealing how the new international balance of power really lies in information technology.
George Gilder's Microcosm is the crystal ball of the next technological era. Leading scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs provide vivid accounts of the latest inventions, revealing how the new international balance of power really lies in information technology.
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 18, 2020
This is a very good book about technology. I wish I could recall more of it but it centered on the work being done at that time to fit more transistors on a silicone chip. Fascinating stuff.
August 4, 2025
2025-06-03 Somehow I had missed adding this book to my reviews on Goodreads, despite my having read and loved it and referring to it often.
It came out in early 1989 and I remember reading it not too long afterwards, when it was still quite fresh. I believe that I had seen the author speak in person before reading it and multiple times after reading it. I went on to read most all of his columns in Forbes magazine and the Tech focused spin off magazine, ASAP, that featured his long articles also. This was in the heyday of the PC revolution when I was also reading the tech publications: PC Week, Info Week, PC Magazine, Byte and others. After reading this book I really got into knowing about the latest Intel (and other chip co.) chip generations from about the 286 on, 386, 386SX & DX, 486, Pentium and many variations/advancements after that. I gave up trying to keep up on most of this a bit after when our son was born in 1998. I was still was interested, if not so well informed, but just did not have the time.
This book was the thing that really cemented my understanding of and appreciation for Moore's Law, the key to the microchip revolution and so much productivity, creativity, and progress in computing... leading to AI and so much more.
Gilder was and still is a master at describing the marvel of brilliant scientists, engineers and designers who were also able to join with, or also be themselves, great entrepreneurs. If the term "the traitorous eight" is not in your data banks, it should be and this book will give you the scoop.
The differences between digital and analog chips and is also made clear, with some great portraits of some of the key players.
The scoop on storage - hard discs and the inklings of microchips taking over from the magnetic technology. His prediction was not quite right, for 20-30 years (many lifetimes in the microchip field), but now that we can buy chip based SSD's for $50/TERABTE!, with vastly faster access: read/write speeds, it seems the older magnetic tech to be on the wane, except for certain niche applications.
Since I have not read this book in 30+ years, my memory is certainly a bit cloudy or faded.
And, it is out of date from the standpoint that it was written so long ago that many important changes have happened since.
But on the other hand, he does such a marvelous job of portraying scientific, entrepreneurial and manufacturing/marketing breakthroughs for the microchip/pc/server/silicon valley revolution, that were foundational to all that has happened since, if any of these things interests you, I urge you to check it out. The person who gets the basic principles of why great things happen sure seems one to pay more attention to than the writer who just gets many of the details right.
Oh, and another book on this topic, but much more recently done, actually corroborates much of this book's themes, without referring to the book or author at all, and not being nearly as consistent with the logic and history: Chip War by Chris Miller. I recommend reading that one too, but believe this to be more consistent and prescient in it's history and conclusions. For instance, the Miller book did a pretty good job of showing how the Soviet Union and it's socialist political/economic system was pathetically unable to replicate the constant innovation and progress of the much more capitalist/free market west, and in particular silicon valley in the microchip field.
Miller applied some of that insight in questioning whether China will be able to actually compete and progress with similar speed and quality because of some of the same inherent socialist problems. But then he falls down and plays the "fear China" card, which negates the accurate historical and political/economic insights that he fairly well (but not well enough) used earlier in the book in describing the USSR and early China history in the chip area. In contrast to that sad situation, Gilder in Microcosm, and most any of his writings, calls a spade a spade and is super clear on the political economic system benefits of free markets vs. the inherent problems with socialism.
But perhaps you come to this with a different point of view?
Well, I challenge you to read both books then and decide for yourself.
To me, the winner and lessons are clear.
It came out in early 1989 and I remember reading it not too long afterwards, when it was still quite fresh. I believe that I had seen the author speak in person before reading it and multiple times after reading it. I went on to read most all of his columns in Forbes magazine and the Tech focused spin off magazine, ASAP, that featured his long articles also. This was in the heyday of the PC revolution when I was also reading the tech publications: PC Week, Info Week, PC Magazine, Byte and others. After reading this book I really got into knowing about the latest Intel (and other chip co.) chip generations from about the 286 on, 386, 386SX & DX, 486, Pentium and many variations/advancements after that. I gave up trying to keep up on most of this a bit after when our son was born in 1998. I was still was interested, if not so well informed, but just did not have the time.
This book was the thing that really cemented my understanding of and appreciation for Moore's Law, the key to the microchip revolution and so much productivity, creativity, and progress in computing... leading to AI and so much more.
Gilder was and still is a master at describing the marvel of brilliant scientists, engineers and designers who were also able to join with, or also be themselves, great entrepreneurs. If the term "the traitorous eight" is not in your data banks, it should be and this book will give you the scoop.
The differences between digital and analog chips and is also made clear, with some great portraits of some of the key players.
The scoop on storage - hard discs and the inklings of microchips taking over from the magnetic technology. His prediction was not quite right, for 20-30 years (many lifetimes in the microchip field), but now that we can buy chip based SSD's for $50/TERABTE!, with vastly faster access: read/write speeds, it seems the older magnetic tech to be on the wane, except for certain niche applications.
Since I have not read this book in 30+ years, my memory is certainly a bit cloudy or faded.
And, it is out of date from the standpoint that it was written so long ago that many important changes have happened since.
But on the other hand, he does such a marvelous job of portraying scientific, entrepreneurial and manufacturing/marketing breakthroughs for the microchip/pc/server/silicon valley revolution, that were foundational to all that has happened since, if any of these things interests you, I urge you to check it out. The person who gets the basic principles of why great things happen sure seems one to pay more attention to than the writer who just gets many of the details right.
Oh, and another book on this topic, but much more recently done, actually corroborates much of this book's themes, without referring to the book or author at all, and not being nearly as consistent with the logic and history: Chip War by Chris Miller. I recommend reading that one too, but believe this to be more consistent and prescient in it's history and conclusions. For instance, the Miller book did a pretty good job of showing how the Soviet Union and it's socialist political/economic system was pathetically unable to replicate the constant innovation and progress of the much more capitalist/free market west, and in particular silicon valley in the microchip field.
Miller applied some of that insight in questioning whether China will be able to actually compete and progress with similar speed and quality because of some of the same inherent socialist problems. But then he falls down and plays the "fear China" card, which negates the accurate historical and political/economic insights that he fairly well (but not well enough) used earlier in the book in describing the USSR and early China history in the chip area. In contrast to that sad situation, Gilder in Microcosm, and most any of his writings, calls a spade a spade and is super clear on the political economic system benefits of free markets vs. the inherent problems with socialism.
But perhaps you come to this with a different point of view?
Well, I challenge you to read both books then and decide for yourself.
To me, the winner and lessons are clear.
March 14, 2015
Read this if you want to understand where the computer age can from...and how silicon valley works.
January 5, 2016
Read this book. (Hi, George.) And everything else he's written. Do it.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews