What Hath God Wrought

This Victorian Internet parallel is pretty interesting. Rather ignorantly, I was shocked as to how similar the development of these comtechs were. I mean, the telegraph developers didnt have a cool name like DARPA to work under, but they both got their grassroot startup from a select few genious' minds.

To delve further into the details of the telegraph:

transatlantic telegraph

This book really shows just how precisely history repeats itself: although sometimes difficult to see through the fog of misrepresentations and peoples need to make themselves look good in writing. The network diagram of the Internet and telegraph systems are strikingly identical, with the Internet replacing the human elements present in the transmission channels of the telegraph. I also got a strange sense of the people in this Industrial Age communication system as a metaphor for the various parts of a computer system. The parts which we take for granted in computers (semi-conductors, processors, etc.)had to be physically transacted by teams of people and rudimentary[to us] office processing. I really liked the discussion of the telegraphy offices and the stock market.. cant wait to get to the ciphers!

In response to the former post:

a bit of the cable... I like that part where Tiffany's started selling the cable as jewlery.. hilarious

A little irony was felt when they first completed the transatlantic mission and the mass hysteria broke out. Do I smell the '00.com bubble bursting? or is it just the smoke from NY's city hall nearly burning to the ground. Crazy Americans... always jumping the gun...

One more thing, how crazy is it that the 30 yr. rule has been in effect for so much of our history(although it may seem to be loosing grip...you decide)

1816 - first working telegraph
1845 - spark of widespread adoption
1872-5 - full adoption and the effects are in full force. [this is where gov steps in and attempts to catch up from mistakes]

Really good read