Naughton points out that Gutenberg’s invention, the printing press, undermined the authority of the Catholic Church, triggered the Protestant Reformation, enabled the rise of modern science, created entirely new social classes and professions, and changed our conception of “childhood” as a protected early period in a person’s life. Yet no one in 1473 could have forseen this.

In the same manner that printing changed civilization, the Internet has the potential to do the same. Already it has created the third largest nation in the world – Facebook users. We’ve gone from regarding the Net as something exotic to something that we take for granted, like mains electricity or running water. 

Yet most people have no idea how the network functions, nor any concept of its architecture. Few can explain why it has been – and continues to be – so uniquely disruptive in social, economic and cultural contexts.

This book explains how and why the Internet was created, what led to its universal adoption, and how and why various applications (such as Napster and Google) were developed. 

The church has adopted the Net and its uses in many ways, from maintaining church records to evangelising closed mission fields. If you wonder where it began and where it will end, then this is the book for you.

By John Naughton
Quercus, London, 2012
ISBN 978-0-85738-425-6

– David McLeod-Jones