Watson come here, I need you
This final module teases apart the strands of the foundational technologies that underpin the 20th century revolution in digital communication: the 19th century Victorian internet. We’ll look at the emergence of telegraphy and the first realization that electricity could represent sound and messages. To understand all that, we have to go further back and consider sempahore and other kinds of signalling technologies. We’ll need to consider things like the Jacquard loom and other ways of extending our cognition into physical media… all the way back to cuneiform and the emergence of writing.
Things to Read and Annotate and By When
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Read, by Nov 24 TWO of:
- A Victorian Ecological Disaster: Imperialism, the Telegraph, and Gutta-Percha
- Submarine Telegraph Cables: Business and Politics, 1838-1939
- How the Internet works: Submarine fiber, brains in jars, and coaxial cables
- Jared Mauch didn’t have good broadband—so he built his own fiber ISP
Remember to read like a predator!
Key Dates & Topics
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Nov 19: Telegraphy & the Victorian Internet
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Nov 24: Précis Note 4
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Nov 26: Lovelace, Babbage, and other assorted savants
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Dec 1: Semaphores; Jacqard Looms
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Dec 3: Anything you want to talk about before we wrap things up?
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Dec 5: The Exit Ticket Reveal And How You Can Use Your Precis Notes To Address It