I will admit, I was a little disappointed when I saw that we had to read the entire The Victorian Internet, but once I started it I found it to be quite interesting. I found myself always trying to locate a good stopping point to take breaks but couldn’t because I wanted to find out what happened next.
I never knew that the telegraph had that much history in the development. I have always thought someone just took a few years maybe and came out with the electronic telegraph that we all know. I would have never imagined that the inventors that came up with this idea would have to convince others of its importance. I couldn’t understand why it took so long for everybody to agree that the electronic telegraph was useful, especially after they witnessed the affect of the original telegraph. It was interesting when I read that people of the church said that it was a little too close to “black magic” because there are a lot of time that we cast out new ideas or technology because we can’t “understand” it. I wonder if that’s how our civilization reacted to say, wireless networking. I wonder if we thought that it was a “stupid” idea or found it unnecessary, and now wireless networking it used almost everywhere we are. We can read books like this and tell ourselves that the people back then were so naive because they didn’t believe that the new technology would be useful and it turns out to be a big hit, but if you think about it, we still do the same thing today with new advances and inventions.
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After I started The Victorian Internet, it wasn't hard for me to keep going also. But what really kept me going (especially during a slow couple pages) were the hilarious little facts thrown out here and there. It’s not only learning about the cornerstone to everything that we work with nowadays that will make me remember the telegraph and The Victorian Internet, but also the humanity in history (the mischievous banker who gave Edison 40,000 in small bills) for example. For another example, Edison is now my hero. Not because he was an amazing inventor, but because he was able to invent despite his history of destroying rooms (and being fired because of it) AND despite the fact that he lived off the ever-nutritious apple pie and coffee meals.
After reading this i finnally understand why the tekegraph WAS the internet. It connected people all around the world and eventually the telegraph became popular and cheap enough to just use it for casual use such as playing checkers on. amazing.
This makes me think about the point of history. We all complain about being forced to take lectures on American history, but what do we learn besides the little facts and details of the past? We learn what happened, and what not to do, to keep the past from repeating. This makes me think of that because we can read "The Victorian Internet" and see how it was so difficult for a revolutionary piece of technology to even be considered, and we can learn from the mistake. Imagine if the telegraph was mastered and accepted 50 years earlier. Would inventors have accelerated in breakthroughs?
I doubt the world will change much in critiquing "average Joe's" ideas, but at least, I think, we have learned to appreciate advancement in technology. It's not "black magic" it's just incredibly science.
It is true. We are as skeptical of today's technology as they were of the past. You can view this with all the future technological advancements and their portrayal in the media especially film as the fearful impact of their integration into society is visually produced. We have gone through such fears of the internet and its usefulness. Once seen as a novelty and now a neccessity for all aspects of life to where there is a drive to provide every child with the access to the technology of infotech through the internet. Yet unlike when the telegraph was discussed for usefullness, we have full knowledge of these happening adn skeptics that naturally have occured so you would think we would socially learn from these past experiences like with the telegraph but we have not.
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