The Master Switch
The Rise and Fall of Information Empires
by Tim Wu · first published 2010
69% recommend30% neutral1% critical
Why HN recommends it
Historical account of how telephone, radio, film and TV went from open and amateur to centralized monopolies. Useful for understanding net neutrality, regulation and whether the internet will follow the same cycle.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
In this age of an open internet, it is easy to forget that every American information industry, beginning with the telephone, has eventually been taken captive by some ruthless monopoly or cartel. With all our media now traveling a single network, an unprecedented potential is building for centralized control over what Americans see and hear. Could history repeat itself with the next industrial consolidation? Could the internet- the entire flow of American information- come to be ruled by one corporate leviathan in possession of "the master switch"? That is the big question that the author pre
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…setting a dangerous precedent. I worry they're trying to squash this unruly behavior through the purchase. Potential benefits might be nice, I just worry the downside risk is very large. * Check out "The Master Switch" by Tim Wu, or at least this review: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/books/review/Leonhardt-t.h...
on “Sprint and T-Mobile Agree on Terms of $32B Deal” ↗Read "Master Switch" by Tim Wu to see how we got from point A to point B. There's no beef to your argument. The telco oligopolies are the result of two simple factors: 1) Telecom is a field with almost infinite economics…
on “When Will the Rest of Us Get Google Fiber?” ↗…reduced below a safe level, you should not blame lack of competition, but call it what it is: incompetence at best, corruption at worst. Good book on the topic that HN readers will appreciate is "The Master Switch": https://www.amazon.ca/Master-Switch-Rise-Information-Empires...
on “Unsafe levels of toxic chemicals found in drinking water for 6M Americans” ↗…I think it's great that more and more web3/decentralized technologies are being developed. I do agree that all networks tend toward centralization over time. Great book on this https://www.amazon.com/Master-Switch-Rise-Information-Empire... I don't think crypto is anywhere near this end stage though. We are still seeing a lot of new technology and players enter the space. It's not "already centralized" as much…
on “My First Impressions of Web3” ↗…everyone being outraged in public forums now (Twitter, Facebook etc). Inevitable and very human, since any form of mass media was widely consumed (Tim Wu wrote a great book about mass media called The Master Switch which covers this very well). I don't think its a "problem" like some people make it out to be. Secondly no, I don't think he was harmed, Brave is a successful product, and having to go outside the…
on “eBay’s Cockroach Cult: The Story of a Stalking Scandal” ↗A couple of books on the topic: "The Master Switch" by Tim Wu, and "The Creation of the Media", by Paul Starr. "The Master Switch" goes through the history of radio, where an initial period of experimentation was stifled by regulation, with big business…
on “New documentary exposes media consolidation and government collusion” ↗Anyone who is interested in a really good overview of 20th century telco policy should read The Master Switch by Tim Wu (http://www.amazon.com/The-Master-Switch-Information-Empires/...). It goes over the transition from telegraph to telephone to internet, talks about the rise of media conglomerates, and basically…
on “Net neutrality is half-dead: Court strikes down FCC’s anti-blocking rules” ↗I didn't realize Tim Wu had gotten into politics. This makes me very happy. Tim Wu wrote the The Master Switch [1], which explains how US media/telecom wound up the way it is today -- how the dominant players came about in various industries (radio, broadcast and cable TV, movies, telephones), and the events that…
on “The Father of Net Neutrality Is Running for Office” ↗…more an accident of history than anything else. If not for the AT&T monopoly (and subsequent breakup), people would have been complaining about siloed telephone services 50 years ago! See Tim Wu's The Master Switch for a nice treatment of this.
on “Dropbox has open-sourced Zulip” ↗Go read Tim Wu’s book The Master Switch. The details of these media/communications monopoly histories are fascinating. It’s hard to answer your counterfactual definitively, but probably, yes.
on ““Dear Mark. I am writing this to inform you that I shall not comply”” ↗Flow https://www.amazon.com/Flow-Psychology-Experience-Perennial-... Antifragile https://www.amazon.com/Antifragile-Things-That-Disorder-Ince... High Output Management https://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/d... The Master Switch https://www.amazon.com/Master-Switch-Rise-Information-Empire... Thinking Fast and Slow https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp...
on “Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?” ↗The book "The Master Switch" by Tim Wu which covers the history of telecommunications as a vehicle for looking at what might happen to the internet was my introduction to Schumpeter. Highly recommended. Wu makes the point that…
on “Schumpeter on Strategy” ↗Book recommendation: The Master Switch by Tim Wu. It's a few years old now but it lays out where we may be headed with the internet based on experience with previous information industries (radio, telephone, television, and film). https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8201080-the-master-switc...
on “European Parliament approves copyright reform” ↗The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires by Tim Wu https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/194417/the-master-s... A great book on history of the information economy over the periods of Radio, Telephone,…
on “Ask HN: Computer Science/History Books?” ↗If you haven't read his book The Master Switch, it's a fantastic read on the history of communication technology. https://www.amazon.com/Master-Switch-Rise-Information-Empire...
on “Tim Wu Explains Why He Thinks Facebook Should Be Broken Up (2019)” ↗