Geeks, Inc.

摘要

Pulitzer-prize winning historian James McPherson has described history as a dialogue between past and present: everything from social movements to scientific discovery prompts historians to ask new questions about old events. Accordingly, our eras attentiveness to networks of people and technologies has triggered an outpouring of research that places innovation in collaborations, rather than crediting the lone genius who dominated older studies. Walter Isaacson's The Innovators exemplifies this newer approach. Isaacson, whose career as best-selling author was built on the 'genius' biography - such as the 2011 Steve Jobs (Simon & Schuster) - now aims to present the definitive history of the digital revolution with teamwork at its core. After kicking off with the visionary work of nineteenth-century pioneers Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage on the concept of a mechanical computer, Isaacson focuses squarely on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.His book synthesizes and reworks academic studies in computing history, and draws on new interviews with technology pioneers such as Bill Gates - covering everything from his teenage adventures in the Lakeside Programming Group in Seattle, Washington, to the founding of Microsoft. This is a mostly sunny account, focused on the excitement of invention rather than the sometimes darker consequences of using digital technologies.