Bob’s Byte: Nicolas Carr Flips on “The Big Switch”

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Nicholas CarrYou remember Nicholas Carr, sure you do.

While at Harvard Business Review, Carr penned a famous report called: “I.T. Doesn’t Matter.”

Now apparently it does matter as he has taken the time to write a book about I.T. The first half of the book explains how computing is switching from a box sitting in front of the user to being a utility-like electricity.

Utility computing is old news, although he presents the story well. So it’s the second half of his book that has the industry talking. In that half, Carr starts to develop a plot to rival sci-fi virtuoso Arthur C. Clarke.

The Big SwitchCarr says a revolution is coming. He might talk to Steve Ballmer whose speech at CeBIT featured the news that our 5th revolution has just begun, but never mentioned “utility.” But Carr sees a different revolution: he sees the internet, a network of computers, becoming a gigantic computer itself.

Users will write programs to run on this "World Wide Computer," as Carr refers to it, and sooner or later, this system will, like Hal 9000 in 2001 A Space Odyssey, gain a level of artificial intelligence. And that’s when the fun starts.

The Big Switch, by Nicholas Carr, Norton, 258 pages.