Book Review: The Innovators

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the first book by Walter Isaacson that I am reading. I did not read Isaacson's more famous biography of Steve Jobs because I am not really a fan of Steve Jobs. I won't invest my time to read book length biographies of arrogant bullies, no matter how brilliant they may be.

The book title is a bit misleading. Innovation can come from many fields of expertise. For example, Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the movable type in printing is an innovation. Henry Ford's idea of the assembly line is an innovation on how to produce things. The invention of the sea container for transporting goods is an innovation in the area of logistics. But this book isn't about these innovators from all fields of industry. Instead, it is laser focused on only innovators in the digital computing industry.

Despite my gripe with the title, this book is still an excellent history book on important personalities in the field of computing. In fact, it is the only book that I have read that fleshes out the story of Ada Lovelace in great detail. I would highly recommend this book on just the story of Ada Lovelace alone.

Also, this is the first book that I have read that describes and emphasize about the significant contributions and importance of women in the field of software programming. Many other history books cover the history of computing machines like ENIAC or Turing's ENGIMA. Also, these other books emphasized on the hardware creators, which tends to be guys. But the machines need to be programmed, and the creators of the programming languages were usually given short shrift. Isaacson's book fills the narrative gap created by these male-bias omissions, and showed how critical women were to the development of software.

Isaacson's book also covers controversial areas such as the stories of people who lost in the courts of law. History is filled with such examples, such as Thomas Edison being credited as the guy who gave the world electricity, when more credit should have been given to Nikola Tesla. There were many people who independently came up with ideas for making the computer or the integrated circuit, but history will always assign credit to a sole person. Isaacson's book also tells the stories of the other inventors who helped contribute to the field, but are forgotten today as they are not credited at all in the current history books.

A big problem with a history book about computing is that new things are happening every day in the world of Information Technology. Thanks to the rapid pace of innovation in IT, we are living and breathing history, and new advances cannot be covered adequately in books such as this one. Every day, new products that were practically the stuff of science fiction years ago are now becoming reality. Cashless payments, driverless vehicles, personal robots with powerful artificial intelligence; these will likely transform human society in years to come. And then, this book will need to be updated to include the pioneers of these nascent technologies today that may become commonplace products in the next few years.


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Book Review: The Atheist Muslim

The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason by Ali A. Rizvi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It is always interesting to read the narratives of ex-Muslims because of the dangers they put themselves in by openly declaring their leaving Islam. In a religion where the punishment for apostasy is death, people who no longer believe must remain silent to stay alive.

Ali Rizvi book shares the light that despite the danger, enlightenment philosophy is also pervasive in Islamic countries. As in "Christian" countries where the number of non-believers are growing, the same too is happening in Islamic ones.

The extremely violent and barbaric practices of ISIS and al-Qaeda should have turn the stomach of good moral people everywhere. However, Islamic apologists and masters of sophistry have somehow made moderate Muslims accept the "less" extreme forms of Islamic beliefs, which includes:

- women are inferior to men
- non-heterosexuals are inferior to heterosexuals
- non-Muslims are inferior to Muslims
- all other religions are inferior to Islam

Unfortunately, when these "less" extreme ideas are bought in by the moderates, it takes only a tiny push for these moderates to take one more step to extremism, which basically is:

- Islam require "true" Muslims to enforce their beliefs on everyone else for the sake of Islam

Atheism books written by ex-Muslims can better counter the pro-Islam arguments offered by the imams, the clerics, and the apologists. When Sam Harris or Christopher Hitchens writes about Islam, the clerics can often use the excuse that outsiders do not understand Islam and are in no position to debate them. The clerics cannot offer the same flimsy excuse when debating ex-Muslims. Ali Rizvi's book provides the critical counter-points from one who is well versed with the core texts of the Islamic tradition.

It is very important that more moderate Muslims be encouraged to "tame" the bigotry and violent teachings of Islam. In Western societies, governments no longer follow the extreme teachings of the Old Testament, thanks to the Age of Enlightenment. Islam sorely needs a similar awakening in the 21st century.

Unfortunately, Ali Rizvi's book can probably be only published and sold in non-Islamic societies. His book will probably be banned in Muslim countries, and can only be distributed clandestinely.

Recently, even the governments of moderate countries like Malaysia and Indonesia appear to be swaying dangerously towards Islamic extremism. Because the Muslim voters are taught to believe in the superiority of Islam over everything, politicians need to bolster their Islamic credentials to win the Muslim voter ("whoever is more Islamic is the superior person"). This is very bad state of affairs because many Islamic practices are more harsh, more brutal, and more barbaric, and cannot be in any sense superior to non-Islamic practices. However, without the appropriate counter points, many of these moderate Muslims are not learning to be more critical of the dubious arguments offered by the clerics. Hopefully, more alternative voices will come out and make a stand, and slow and halt the perpetuation of bad ideas under the name of Islam.


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