Wired World

Now, tell me: why hasn't U.S. Robotics licensed the Cat Stevens' song "Wild World"? Here's the jingle: "ooh, baby, baby it's a wired world/it's hard to get by just upon a 14.4 K modem." And to think, I could have been in advertising where, according to a recent study, employees die quicker. The National Geographic Society, longtime companion to armchair travelers and thinkers through their magazine, television shows, and educational films, lightly traces the history of telecommunications from Samuel Morse's 1837 telegraph to M.I.T. student Steve Mann's virtual goggles (he can get e-mail from his wife while he's at the grocery store: "Steve, don't forget the milk.") Snazzy graphics and humor make the educational medicine go down quite easily as students watch the world expand from speaking in Morse code to video teleconferencing. Interviews with Nicholas Negroponte (Being Digital), Douglas Englebart (inventor of the mouse), and various members of the M.I.T. Media Lab offer insights into the cutting edge of artificial intelligence research, among other topics. A good choice. Recommended. Aud: I, J, H. (R. Pitman)