Bright Boys
The Making of Information Technology

Bright Boys: The Making of Information Technology by Tom Green
Price: $39.00
Availability: In stock.

Summary

Everything has a beginning. None was more profound—and quite unexpected—than Information Technology. Here for the first time is the untold story of how our new age came to be and the bright boys who made it happen. What began on the bare floor of an old laundry building eventually grew to rival in size the Manhattan Project. The unexpected consequence of that journey was huge—what we now know as Information Technology. For sixty years the bright boys have been totally anonymous while their achievements have become a way of life for all of us. “Bright Boys” brings them home. By 1950 they’d built the world’s first real-time computer. Three years later they one-upped themselves when they switched on the world’s first digital network. In 1953 their work was met with incredulity and completely overlooked. By 1968 their work was gospel. Today, it’s the way of the world. Special Foreword by Jay W. Forrester Includes notes by chapter, bibliography, index, and portfolio of archival photography.

Details

ISBN: 978-1-56881-476-6
Year: 2010
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 300
Web Site:
http://www.brightboys.org

Reviews

Cyntrica Eaton, AAAS Science Books & Films (External Link)

August 2010

“The story that unravels between the front and back covers provides a well-written, well-researched discussion of the intricate configuration of circumstances and individuals that conspired in two major firsts: (1) Whirlwind, a first-of-its-kind digital computer capable of processing and delivering information in real time and (2) digital networks capable of transporting information. In the book, Green takes special care to make the reader aware of the social and scientific contexts in which the ’bright boys’ worked and flourished; the result is a highly enjoyable history lesson with a true feel for the human aspect of many of the key players.”

Midwest Book Review (PDF)

July 2010

“The twentieth century had untold growth and advancement in technology. ’Bright Boys’ tells the story of one group of individuals who were driven to push these ideas further and spurred the technological development of the nation following World War II. Working with next to nothing in Cambridge, Massachusetts, these college students brought forth the beginning of many of today’s technical ideas. ’Bright Boys’ is a riveting read of technological history, highly recommended.”

Paul Denning, MIT Sloan School of Management (External Link)

June 2010

Bright Boys: The Making of Infomation Technology by Tom Green is being featured in the MIT News. Check out this link!

SciTech Book News (External Link)

June 2010

Bright Boys has been profiled in SciTech Book News!

Tom Mackin, New Jersey Star-Ledger (External Link)

May 2010

“Every time you book an airline ticket, retrieve cash from an ATM machine or even thaw a steak in a microwave oven, you owe a debt to two young men who in the summer of 1946 conceived the first real-time digital computer in a rundown former laundry building near the Charles River in Cambridge, Mass. … Robert Everett and Jay Forrester were the leaders in the design of that first digital computer, which they called Whirlwind, a behemoth that filled an entire floor of the vacant factory. They are the foremost “bright boys” of the title. With the creation of the Whirlwind leviathan, the bright boys launched the country on one of the greatest and most successful projects in the history of American engineering.”

View the book trailer on You Tube! (External Link)

March 2010

Bright Boys: The Making of Information Technology, by Tom Green, offers a thorough and compelling insight into how modern information technology came about, how all the pieces work together, and who was responsible for what. From 1938 to 1958, history was in the making and much of our modern world was a direct result. The “bright boys” played an integral part, and their efforts directly affected generations thereafter. Their huge machine shook the world and provoked a revolution in electronics. Bright Boys delves into the genius of their giant creation and how it became ever smaller and then disappeared into the new age of modern computers and the high-tech wizardry of today.

Dik Daso, Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum

February 2010

“Bright Boys cuts right to the heart of how complex technologic systems are conceived, incubated, and grown across generations. Tom’s clever writing style draws a reader into the story and the remarkable depth and breadth of his research holds the reader firm, often enthralled, throughout. This is a remarkable case study of the birth and development of a technological system that indispensably beats as the heart of the economy, communications, transportation, and culture- circulating life’s blood of information around the globe in the blink of an eye.”

Paul E. Ceruzzi Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum

February 2010

“A fascinating story of how it felt to be present at the creation of the Information Age, at a time when, as the author says, there was less than a megabyte of computer memory on the whole planet.”