The Big Switch Rewiring the World from Edison to Google

The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google

Introduction

       Written with exquisite and extensive research on the field of information technology the book comes out as one of the main predictors of what will happen in the future and the impacts of the key elements of technology. Carr is a well-read and researched author who uses both the abstract and empirical forms of knowledge in the information technology and the technology world as a whole. With the rapidly advancing processes and techniques and equipment as well as concepts, the dynamic world of computers and communication stands out as one of the game changers in terms of business, social and even political aspects of the human life. As such the proposition by Carr in his book, “The Big Switch, ” that there are a number of things that will come out in an outstanding manner as movers and shakers of the future of technology use and application in every situation.

       One of the most important and striking aspects of the book, is the kind of style that the author used. As it stands, technology has gone through various changes and developments that depict a semblance of evolution. Using an analogy and comparison with other aspects of economic and social aspects of the human endeavors, the evolutionary nature is detectable. It is in this fashion that the author uses electricity as one of the comparative controls to show the track that the information technology has gone through with time. This means that all through the generations that have come and gone, the author suggest that there is a particular fashion of evolution through which it has gone. The analogical analysis of the advancements begins by branding some epoch of electricity development as being in a time when supplied by individual entities at one geographical location to the rest of the world. This was a remarkable period of the electricity supply and is exactly related to one of the stages that that the IT arena has experienced (Carr, 2009).

       From this analogy, the writer gives a good introduction to the ever amazing cloud computing. Well, truth be told; it is a good thing cloud computing and increase of bandwidths of internet access avenues have been implemented. On the modern tech field, speed and efficiency is of great import for reliable transaction of daily endeavors. Like the electric evolution, internet is nowadays available for the everybody including households, offices, workstations other places. The springing up of high speed wireless connections as well as the available coaxial and twisted cable- based internet connection processes have characterized this process and as a result of this, internet connections are not only available for many, but is also more efficient and precise in the kind of work it brings (Carr, 2009).

       With this in mind, Carr brings to the attention of the logically rational mind that it is only a matter of time since the computer becomes a hollow tool that facilitates the work of the larger, newly developed and wide-coverage computer that is known as the internet. How confounding this concept is, is an understandable aspect but for the non-utopia mind of the technology expert or enthusiast, it is evidently available. It simply implies that in the use of more effective and widely extending internet connections, whose characteristics are deeply embedded in the concept of cloud computing, comes out as openly as the rising sun. It thus catapults the process of technological advancements of technology into the realms of using a much larger and programmable computer. This is the internet. With this kind of sophistication comes out as having a vast number of effects (Carr, 2009).

       Before delving into the issues relating to the challenges and drawbacks of this kind of development, it is an issue of vital consideration to look at the comparison of the internet and the other key inventions that have been used as example in this book. On this perspective, it is possible to note that through comparison with the Thomas Edison and Samuel Insull situations a depiction of juxtaposition is revealed and allows for room so that the reader understands the development in a number of ways, which ultimately lead them to the overall conclusion: there has been a transformation from the Edison generation to Google generation. However, the basic issue in this message is that unlike all other inventions that have rapidly evolved with high degrees of dynamism, the internet and its implications happens to be full of demands as well as impacts (Carr, 2009).

       Thus, it is obvious that with such a worldwide computer coming up and bringing into the picture, the internet as a supercomputer, there is more than meets the eye. Security and privacy are the most conspicuous whenever internet is mentioned. When security is taken into consideration, three issues come to mind; integrity, availability and confidentiality. This is to mean that data through the internet in a shared computer (for example in cloud computing) have the risk of facing a huge threat of security as well sabotage cases. Apart from this, the surveillance and analysis done on internet user, in social networks for instance prove to be a challenge to the privacy issues in the future that begins now. Moreover, a deeper look into the reduced systems in companies and automation brought about by clod computing and its counterparts continues to lead to dropping off people from the IT departments (Carr, 2009).

References

Carr, N. (2009), The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google, W. W. Norton.