Faster, the Acceleration of Just About Everything
James Gleick
Vintage
2000
Previously released under the same title by Pantheon. This edition has
some light revisions and a new afterword by the author.
In Faster, Gleick takes us on a breathless rush through a dizzying
enumeration of the acceleration of our lives. He touches on everything
from the invention of the printing press to the ever-shrinking transistor,
the laying of railroad to the flight of the Concorde, and the invention
of the sundial to the creation of the modern atomic clock. Normally the pace that
covering this broad an area demands would hurt comphrension, but given the subject matter it serves as an effective literary device.
Regardless of whether our lives are actually speeding up Gleick's hypersonic voice certainly succeeds in
making it feel that way.
This is not a book that attempts to project what is going to happen next nor does it concern itself with questions of why things change. If you are looking for deep insight or informed commentary this is not the book to buy. It is, however, the best catalog of exactly how things are changing. Gleick is an excellent writer and Faster is worth the short time it takes to read.