This is an excellent book, great for anyone wanting to increase their understanding of contemporary technology through its history and capabilities.

My favorite aspect of this book is the examples with the footnotes. Whenever the authors provide an example they link to the news articles or the research. This was very helpful to pick up a few details that weren’t included in the summary.

The chapter on encryption and privacy contains important information for our future. As I read the current news about the Congressional interrogation of the CEO of TikTok, they ignore the fact they could solve (well address, not solve) the problems they are concerned with by enacting national privacy standards through law. It appears that they don’t actually want to take action; they simply want to perform for their constituents. Sadly, most of the questions they ask make it clear that they know nothing about the basics of technology. They should read this book.