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Some Remarks: Essays And Other Writing (2012)

by Neal Stephenson(Favorite Author)

3.58 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0062024434 (ISBN13: 9780062024435)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

William Morrow

review 1: Having read a number of Neil's books, its fun to hear his voice come out in this collection. I learned about Leibniz and Ames Iowa, both of which I knew a little bit about. There is a particularly long section in the middle about the laying of new transcontinental data cables - fiber optic. It's amazing how something so critical to 1990's telecommunications can seem so quaint 20 years later. On to the Baroque Cycle!
review 2: This is a collection of several essays/articles/musings by Neal Stephenson. Some I did not understand what he was getting at, hence only 3 stars. For me, the value of the book was in the article for Wired Magazine on the history, current state, and possible futures of the submarine cables that link us all together and yet are surprisingly ... morerare and fragile. The history includes some interesting characters (J.J.Thompson, aka Lord Kelvin) and some present day buccaneers who go around the world, making, laying, connecting, organizing these submarine cables. What started out as a digital cable, the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cables, turned analog with the coming of the telephone, and has now gone back to its digital roots with the arrival of the Internet. Fascinating stuff, told only as Neal can tell it! This part rated a full 5 stars. less

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