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Publisher's Summary

The Computer Age is over. After a cataclysmic global run of 30 years, it has given birth to the age of the telecosm - the world enabled and defined by new communications technology. Chips and software will continue to make great contributions to our lives, but the action is elsewhere. To seek the key to great wealth and to understand the bewildering ways that high-tech is restructuring our lives, look not to chip speed but to communication power, or bandwidth. Bandwidth is exploding, and its abundance is the most important social and economic fact of our time.

George Gilder is one of the great technological visionaries, and "the man who put the 's' in telecosm" (Telephony magazine). He is equally famous for understanding and predicting the nuts and bolts of complex technologies, and for putting it all together in a soaring view of why things change, and what it means for our daily lives. His track record of futuristic predictions is one of the best, often proving to be right even when initially opposed by mighty corporations and governments. He foresaw the power of fiber and wireless optics, the decline of the telephone regime, and the explosion of handheld computers, among many trends. His long-awaited Telecosm is a bible of the new age of communications. Equal parts science story, business history, social analysis, and prediction, it is the one book you need to make sense of the titanic changes underway in our lives.
©2000 by George Gilder (P)2000 by Blackstone Audiobooks, All Rights Reserved

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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  • James
  • 14-11-2003

Learn about broadband and wireless

Gilder was a bet selling economic writer who became a famous technology writer and stock picker in the 90s. His stock picking has fallen down, but his technology writing is still excellent: he explains the physics and economics of the bandwidth revolution we are in the middle of, and does it in a compelling and understandable way.
Add 5 years (sometimes more) to his predictions and realize that the companies that developed the great technology don't always benefit from it.

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Ms. P
  • 19-08-2015

Explained simply, delightful stories

This is a must-read for the full-stack marketer looking for a good foundation in telecommunications.

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • David Chan
  • 11-01-2020

Great book but clunky editing

Performance was good but editing bad. Noticeable pauses litter the work which distract unnecessarily. Otherwise a great book

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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  • Mark A. Fitzpatrick
  • 24-10-2003

Telebubble

This book is a gem for historians. If you are longing for those bubble days, here's the book that let's you relive the nonsense. Play it on your home stereo at parties and laugh along with your friends and what you were crying about only two years ago. As an added bonus, you can memorize some of the lines from this comedy classic and use them as catch-phrases around the office water cooler. Your colleagues will say "where does she come up with this stuff? She's the coolest."

Seriously, it was borderline factual at points, did have some interesting and accurate history, but really smells of the euphoria of thse bygone days of yesteryear. If you find yourself wondering "what were we thinking", you can get the answer here. I really do recommend this book, but it certainly does not belong in Science, perhaps not in Information Age - Audible, please move this one to Comedy.

12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • Mark E. Twiz
  • 25-08-2014

No longer relavent

Shrugged. Not interesting when it was first released, and certainly no longer interesting today. There are many more important titles for your money today.

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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  • William
  • 04-04-2013

Not really ground breaking stuff here

ISDN and DSL ,, this book has a couple of glimmers of hope but really not an inside look at the future of communications.

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