Bayesian Investor Blog

Ramblings of a somewhat libertarian stock market speculator

Masters of the Word

Posted by Peter on April 14, 2015
Posted in: Book Reviews, Economics, Politics. Tagged: history, industrial revolution, war.

Book review: Masters of the Word: How Media Shaped History, by William J. Bernstein.

This is a history of the world which sometimes focuses on how technology changed communication, and how those changes affected society.

Instead of carefully documenting a few good ideas, he wanders over a wide variety of topics (including too many descriptions of battles and of individual people).

His claims seem mostly correct, but he often failed to convince me that he has good reason for believing them. E.g. when trying to explain why the Soviet economy was inefficient (haven’t enough books explained that already?) he says the “absence of a meaningful price signal proved especially damaging in the labor market”, but supports that by mentioning peculiarities which aren’t clear signs of damage, then describing some blatant waste that wasn’t clearly connected to labor market problems (and without numbers, doesn’t tell us the magnitude of the problems).

I would have preferred that he devote more effort to evaluating the importance of changes in communication to the downfall of the Soviet Union. He documents increased ability of Soviet citizens to get news from sources that their government didn’t control at roughly the time Soviet power weakened. But it’s not obvious how that drove political change. It seems to me that there was an important decrease in the ruthlessness of Soviet rulers that isn’t well explained by communication changes.

I liked his description of affordable printing presses depended on a number of technological advance, suggesting that printing could not easily have arisen at other times or places.

The claim I found most interesting was that the switch from reading aloud to reading silently and the related ability to write alone (as opposed to needed a speaker and a scribe) made it easier to spread seditious and sexual writings due to increased privacy.

Bernstein is optimistic that improved communication technology will have good political effects in the future. I partly agree, but I see more risks than he does (e.g. his like of the democratic features of the Arab Spring aren’t balanced by much concern over the risks of revolutionary violence).

Posts navigation

← Dietary Zinc/Copper Ratio
The Measure of Civilization →
  • Recent Posts

    • Are Intelligent Agents More Ethical?
    • Insider Trading on Nuclear Regulation?
    • The Ageless Brain
    • AI 2027 Thoughts
    • Should AIs be Encouraged to Cooperate?
    • Rain of Tariffs
    • Notes from the TRIIM-X Clinical Trial
    • AI Markets on Manifold
  • Recent Comments

    • Bruce Smith on Are Intelligent Agents More Ethical?
    • Peter on Rain of Tariffs
    • Eli on Rain of Tariffs
    • The Ageless Brain | Bayesian Investor Blog on The End of Alzheimer’s
    • AI 2027 Thoughts | Bayesian Investor Blog on AI Fire Alarm Scenarios
  • Tags

    aging amm autism best posts bias brain bubbles CFAR climate communication skills consciousness covid diet effective altruism empires equality ethics evolution existential risks genetics happiness history honesty industrial revolution information economics IQ kelvinism law macroeconomics meditation mind uploading MIRI neuroscience prediction markets prizes psychology rationality relationships risks seasteading status stock market crash transhumanism war willpower
  • Categories

    • Announcements [B] (6)
    • Book Reviews (281)
    • Economics (185)
      • Idea Futures (44)
      • Investing (83)
    • Life, the Universe, and Everything (153)
      • Fermi Paradox (6)
      • Health (111)
      • Humor (11)
    • Movies (2)
    • Politics (197)
      • China (18)
      • Freedom (19)
      • Mideast (14)
      • U.S. Politics (80)
    • Science and Technology (258)
      • Artificial Intelligence (90)
      • Miscellaneous (20)
      • Molecular Assemblers (Advanced Nanotech) (16)
      • The Flynn Effect (16)
      • The Human Mind (111)
      • Virtual Worlds (4)
    • Uncategorized (14)
Proudly powered by WordPress Theme: Parament by Automattic.