IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2015 - 5

progress of computing since its very
inception, so often overlooked or
omitted, willfully or otherwise, in the
history of computer development.
What follows in the book are chapters on the development of the programmable digital computer, and the
associated components that made
the computer both smaller and faster: the transistor, and the microchip.
The stories behind these creations
are well documented, but the contribution of this book is to bring us
the stories of the men who developed these components. Again, for a
book concerned with innovators, the
chapter on the transistor takes time
to detail specific labs (Bell Labs, in
this instance), teams and technologies more than a particular individual, although it is undoubtedly the
case that the name William Shockley
recurs throughout the chapter.
Sandwiched between the development of the first computer (with
contributions from Turing, Atanasoff,
Berry, Mauchly, and Eckert, as expected) and the component parts that
accelerated the computer (including
the work of Shockley, Noyce, Gordon Moore and the rise of INTEL) is
an interesting chapter on programming. Typically, in computer history
narratives, programming is covered
later, centering on the software crisis
that arose in 1960's. Instead, in this
text, Isaacson introduces the idea
much earlier and shows the crucial
role women played in programming
the first electronic, digital, programmable computer, the ENIAC, at the
University of Pennsylvania. Here it is
possible that many readers will first
encounter the names of Jean Jennings, Betty Snyder, and the most
famous of all, Grace Hopper. The
roles these women played is increasingly understood and publicized, but
to see their contributions highlighted
in this book is very welcome.
The second half of the book
concentrates on the people behind
december 2015

video games, the Internet, and the
transition to personal computing.
It's as we move into this area that
we are dealing with increasingly
familiar names: Bill Gates, Paul
Allen, and Steve Jobs among them.
Presumably the principal audience
for this book is those familiar with
Isaacson's previous works, including the biography of Steve Jobs.
These well-known people and their
personalities, responsible for driving the transition from mainframe
scientific computing to the world
of the personal computer, are certainly interesting, and Isaacson
presents them well if without any
new or revelatory information or
presentation. For a book whose title
focuses on the innovators behind
technology, we learn little here that
isn't covered in a standard text of
the development of the computer.
In a sense, this observation
sums up the overall book. This is an
engaging text that tells the familiar
story of the historical development
of the computer from a mathematical machine, to the information
engine that it is today. The challenges with the book come as a direct
consequence of the frame of reference chosen by the author to relay
this story. Perhaps it is no surprise
that an author whose prior books
include a substantial number of
biographies (including Steve Jobs,
Benjamin Franklin, and Albert Einstein) should choose the individual
as the lens through which to examine innovation.
However, while these previous
biographical subjects are all unquestionably innovators, is it generally
the case that an individual, or group
of individuals, is responsible for driving a revolution as in the case of
onset of the digital information age?
Not that the people highlighted in
the new book are unimportant, but
the danger lies in emphasizing the
role of innovators, while ignoring
∕

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

the overall climate of development
in which they worked. When we
think of flight, the Wright brothers
are chief among the innovators we
would consider, but there is a risk
that this anointing of individuals or
groups tends to ignore the prevailing environment of innovation. With
flight, how often do we consider the
work of Borelli, Cayley, or Gustave
Whitehead? It could be said that
flight was an innovation that was
undergoing simultaneous development at a number of places at the
same time, driven by external forces, and the will to succeed. Although
this text is titled The Innovators, in
fact the chapters are more clearly a
description of a technology, rather
than an insightful look at the people
behind the innovation.
The chapter that illustrates this
most clearly is Chapter 2, "The
Computer." There are many names
here, as is typically the case in a
chapter on the development of the
computer, where so much is attributed to Turing, Zuse, Atanasoff,
Berry, Aitken, Wilks, and Flowers,
such that a discerning biography
of each would not be feasible, and
indeed we are given only a short
background concerning each. The
focus of the chapter is, as it should
be, the innovation itself. The drive
to develop the most important of
tools is bigger than the people, it is
the climate, the wave of innovation
that tells the story.
It is certainly true that there are
innovators, and where they clearly
exist this book does well to highlight
their contribution, but not significantly more so than other, more traditional innovation-centric versions
of the history of the computer. The
subtitle of the book is How a Group
of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks
Created the Digital Revolution,
and yet perhaps that is the single
most significant missed opportunity.
It is true that the development of

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2015