Nlown to bits chapter 1 summary

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Blown to Bits Chapter 1 Summary

The main concept of chapter one in "Blown to Bits" by Hal Abelson, Ken Ledeen, and Harry Lewis, is that everything in the modern world is, in some way, tied into technology. The chapter opens up with no matter where you look, there is probably a computer controlling the function or object. Then, there is all the data that is created and recorded with computers, and then people, or even other computers, can use all the recorded data to keep track of you, or anything else for that matter. The chapter can then be split into three sections: "The Explosion of Bits, and Everything Else," "The Koans of Bits," and "Good and Ill, Promise and Peril."

In the section, "The Explosion of Bits, and Everything Else," the text expands on how efficient modern computers are keeping track of information and data. How there is enough storage space available to practically record every detail of your life and everyone else's as well. But, what really sums the first section up the best is the last line: "The forces shaping your future are digital, and you need to understand them." Here, I believe the authors are telling us straight out that the world is going to become completely different from anything human history has seen. What we thought before as personal will become something completely opposite of it. The information you put online has the ability to be saved and distributed to everyone in the world.

The second section is about "The Koans of Bits." A koan is paradoxical anecdote or riddle, and often used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and to provoke enlightenment. That definition is straight out of google by the way. In total, there are seven koans: "It’s All Just Bits," "Perfection Is Normal," "There Is Want in the Midst of Plenty," "Processing Is Power," "More of the Same Can Be a Whole New Thing," "Nothing Goes Away," and "Bits Move Faster Than Thought." In short, these points can be summarized in this list respectively:

• Information in a computer is malleable because it is ones and zeros.
• Computers do not mess up.
• Information that can not be found online may seem not to exist entirely.
• The faster an idea is processed in a computer, the faster it can become a reality.
• Exponential growth can become a lot a whole lot quicker than one may think.
• Information and data of every sort is never going to be fully erased.
• Thanks to the internet, the news and information can be gathered about an event in our own city before we even know what is going on.

The chapter then brings us to the final section, "Good and Ill, Promise and Peril," where the morals of modern technology are touched to caution us on what technology is really meant to be. Technology as a whole is meant to be a tool for everyone to use not only to advance ourselves in our own lives but for other's advancements in their lives as well. One of the first noticeable lines in the beginning of the section is stated like this: "The way the technology is offered to us, the way we use it, and the consequences of the vast dissemination of digital information are matters not in the hands of technology experts alone." The authors make it quite clear that the use of technology, and the knowledge that comes with it, is not just for people who are in the field for computers. Everyone should learn the full potentials of what modern technology can do. Whether it be good or bad, a tool can be used for both, and it is the responsibility of anyone who uses the tool to know about it.

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