Book Review: The Death of Distance: How the Communications Revolution Will Change Our Lives

Though a bit outdated, Frances Cairncross’ “The Death of Distance: How the Communications Revolution Will Change Our Lives,” serves as an interesting measuring tool for the progress of technology over the past fifteen years. In fact, because of the year in which the book was written (1997) it is also serves as an aid in seeing where the book proved prophetic and where it fell short in the things people then expected to happen in and because of technology in their future. Some things we may even chuckle at as they are things which then seemed so cutting-edge, yet now we take for granted.

The book gives a hopeful outlook on numerous potential benefits of technology and does well in surveying a wide range of areas that technology could potentially affect, from home décor and medicine in third-world countries to legislation and human relationships. While the book has an overall tone of ameliorating and glorifying the internet and technology, it does nonetheless acknowledge some of the shortcomings and potential dangers, though perhaps not as thoroughly as it could. 

Cairncross also approaches the prospects of the future via analysis of the past, which gives the book an interesting dynamic of time, helping you realize that many of the issues at hand are not necessarily new but rather have been an ongoing process of production and progression.

I would not necessarily recommend this book to anyone researching newer media and technologies, since much of the information is no longer current. It does nonetheless provide an interesting background to the progression of technology and the potential that it still has in the various areas that have yet to be reached.