Digital denizens

The Innovators, Walter Isaacson’s latest book, is a history-cum-serial biography of the digital age that features an unexpected star — Ada Byron Lovelace.

The first chapter sees Ada, Countess of Lovelace (1815-52), sharing space and importance with English mathematician Charles Babbage (1791-1871), inventor of the Analytical Engine, the first mechanical, digital, general-purpose computer, inspired by Jacquard looms and their punch cards.

But it is mathematician-cum-pioneer programmer Ada who continuously enchants Isaacson; the author reveals that her scientific ‘Notes’ are even now studied for her rousing endorsement of the Babbage  computer, along with her steadfast belief in a future where  “machines would become partners of the human imagination...”

Isaacson proceeds to systematically chronicle the evolution of computers and all that followed... programming, software, video games, the Internet, the World Wide Web, email, blogging, social networking — a connected world. His account is comprehensive, well-researched, anecdotal and amusing, slightly but not too technical, though the second chapter is mathematical to a degree.

It’s also quite American in slant, with England and Europe getting their share. There is, however, no mention of  Shiva Ayyadurai, the Indian-American who has occasionally staked a claim to email pioneering.

Despite possible omissions, the book is choc-a-block with the various personages — geniuses, geeks, hackers, hippies, entrepreneurs and ordinary folk with extraordinary vision — people who contributed to the digital revolution at every stage.

One by one, the early machines and men get their bytes: Herman Hollerith from 1889; Professor Vannevar Bush (1931, creator of the world’s first analog mechanical computer, the Differential Analyzer), Tommy Flowers, Alan Turing, German engineer Konrad Zuse, Harvard-IBM’s Howard Aiken, the binary British war-time code breaker ‘Colossus’, ENIAC from Mauchly-Eckert, EDVAC, UNIVAC, ARPANET, many many more worthies and developments.

All get due credit and respect as their stories are related by a writer determined to pay homage to the scientists, anonymous engineers and “lonely basement tinkerers” whose creative collaboration brought forth the prizes — the big mainframe computers, the transistor, the microchip, the mouse, the microprocessor, the personal computer, concluding with the big daddy — the Internet and its accoutrements.

In this mostly male club, some half a dozen women programmers managed to leave their imprint during the 1940s. Most notable was Grace Hopper, who became known for developing the first compiler, and introducing the terms ‘bug’ and ‘debugging’ ( inspired by a moth that landed on the team’s computer). And by 1945, thanks largely to Grace, the Harvard Mark I was the world’s easily programmable big computer.

However, the hulking noisy “industrial and military colossi” of the 40s and 50s were accessible only to researchers. Through the 70s, refrigerator-sized minicomputers appeared in offices, followed by personal computers for homes. The personal computer and the Internet developed separately but simultaneously. It would be late 80s before a commoner could dial up and go online. This is a book about machines, processes and people, all too human, ingenious visionaries, creative capable teams.

Steve Jobs was willful and demanding, yet inspired loyalty. William Shockley, Nobel Laureate, co-inventor of the transistor, was an example of human frailty, ego and ultimate decline. Conversely, JCR Licklider, father of the Internet, happily shared ideas; while Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, insisted that the web protocols should be shared freely and openly.

And, while Paul Allen and Steve Wozniak come across as the ideators and gentler partners to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs respectively, the latter duo play their parts as brat-genius icons.

Isaacson also delves into the reasons for the ultimate standoff between Gates and Jobs, and concludes, “Apple opted for an integrated approach... more beautiful products, a higher profit margin, and a more sublime user experience. Microsoft’s approach led to a wider choice of hardware... a better path for gaining market share.”

Free and open-source software messiahs Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds are generously portrayed, on par with their more visible ‘proprietary model’ software colleagues, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

The Internet was fused by a close-knit partnership of three teams — military, industrial, academic. Government and private firms helped with funding and facilities, but it was also the creation of a loosely knit cohort of academics and hackers who worked as peers and freely shared their creative ideas to wit the Silicon Valley ecosystem.

Isaacson’s book is an affectionate tribute to the digital-age revolutionaries; a tome that can spark the non-technical reader’s interest in technology. However, the author prefers not to touch on the darker aspects of the digital age.

Essentially, this is a book about the idea of innovation, the requisite social and cultural forces, and the necessity for creative collaboration as much as Eureka moments. And to the end, Isaacson echoes Ada Lovelace and her concept of ‘poetical science’ as a panacea for the future.