The guru of high technology and a man whose "slightest utterance can move stocks" (The Wall Street Journal) presents a clear, cogent vision of the future of telecommunications; what it will mean in our everyday lives; and how savvy investors can get on the bandwagon today.

With his books (including the groundbreaking Microcosm), top-selling newsletter, testimony before Congress, and annual Telecosm conferences, George Gilder has become the premier prophet of bandwidth and connectivity. In this revised version of Telecosm, Gilder takes technology buffs and investors on a mind-bending tour inside the worldwide webs of glass and light, explaining how fiber optics and wireless breakthroughs are pushing new technologies and new companies to the fore.

Microcosm has multiplied Computing power and Storage and divided costs by million folds. Connectivity between these massive and powerful systems has not kept pace during this phase. Better late than never, enter Telecosm. Fiber and Satellites using light and electromagnetic waves transfer information across the globe at Petabit rates. This paradigm shift in communications is bound to have profound effects on business and society. We will soon be wasting bandwidth as we are now wasting transistors on our processors. Gilder narrates this phenomenon very well.

After reading the first 3 chapters of the book, I decided to revisit my college books on Quantum Physics- Planck's Constant, Wave Theory, Speed of light, Schroedinger's equation come in handy to really appreciate the power of Telecosm. For ready reference the book provides an excellent glossary of all technical terms that help have a quick recap. I would appreciate if the next edition contains detailed notes on concepts like WDM, CDMA and Packet Switching in the appendix.

The future looks so bright that I foresee a global scarcity of sunglasses! But we still have a problem on hand- the limitation imposed by the speed of light. But if God created light, we need to urge with him to create something that is faster. That will need different lines of communication not discussed in this book. Till then, let there be light!


An Outdated Piece of .com Junk   August 19, 2003
Kelly Pierce (Chicago, IL)
8 out of 11 found this review helpful

While this book is extremely well written, it is outdated now in 2003. This book is filled with the hype, euphoria, and speculative promises of the .com era. Yes, the writing sizzzles and many of the stories are interesting, but the writing seems to lack a firm foundation of fundemental research and the stories when read carefully seem to be re-written from third party accounts rather than the result of original research, interviews, and fact finding. Somehow, Wired Magazine articles are better than this.