Information Age Tales - from Adam's apple to the Apple II and Beyond - Table of Contents & Chapters

Aug 31, 2026

Information Age Tales traces the evolution of information technology and shared knowledge across human history, arguing that breakthroughs in language, memory, writing, printing, and digital systems reshaped power within civilizations. Michael S. Hart’s foreword frames how technologies enabled curiosity and wider access to learning, moving from early communication and symbols to printing advances and modern cyberspace. The text surveys key eras and inventions through a structured set of chapter topics and historical milestones.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPosters

FormatDOCX

Pages123

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Dedication

Epigraph

Foreword

Preface

Chapters

1. Did Water Monkeys Swim Before We Spoke?

2. The Gift of Memory

3. From Whence Cometh Indo-European Tongues?

4. Scripting Symbols of Shape

5. Symbols of Sound Demand Analysis

6. China’s InfoTech. Siblings

7. Islam’s Great Gifts to the West

8. Charlemagne & Medieval Europe

9. Largest Land Empire Ever

10. Mongols Open the Way

11. The Missing Keys to Science Chest

12. Invaders from the North

13. He Unchained Books

14. Printers as Agents of Change

15. Capitalism’s Link to Ink

16. Shaping the English Language

17. Ottmar Mergenthaler Does It Again

18. The Eighth Wonder of the World

19. Free Self-Learning Laboratories

20. Linotype’s Digital Demise

21. The Seeds of Cyberspace

22. Knowledge-Sharing.—Then and Now

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

About the Author

About Michael Hart

Bibliography

Index

Title half page Information Age Tales Frontespiece to come (by iUniverse?) Full Title page Information Age Tales from Adam's apple to the Apple II and Beyond The forbidden fruit empowered Homo sapiens: then Info Tech expanded the sharing of knowledge to upset balances of power within major civilizations. BRAD BRADFORD Foreword and Epilogue by Michael S. Hart Name and location of publisher??? Copyright Page (Will iUniverse handle this during design without needing any input from me?) DEDICATION To CAROL For becoming my smart, beautiful bride in 1949, then giving fully of herself to me and our wonderful family incomparable love, care, feeding, fun and friendship. Also for her perceptive editing of my copy over many decades, especially during the writing of this book. Epigraph Neither to persuade nor indoctrinate—rather to foster curiosity about past InfoTech. Paraphrased from Henry Hobhouse’s introduction to SEEDS OF CHANGE TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication Epigraph Foreword by Michael S. Hart, eBooks inventor and Project Gutenberg co-founder Preface “Knowledge is power”—Francis Bacon. Shared knowledge empowers civilizations. . CHAPTERS 1. Did Water Monkeys Swim Before We Spoke? Whence cometh language, the InfoTech that let us dominate our planet? We listen, we easily hallucinate word boundaries. No spaces—such as we use in writing this—separate spoken words. Yet somehow we find it easy to make sense of speech. 2. The Gift of Memory For millennia, mnemonics reigned over commerce, news, entertainment, and the perpetuation and refinement of crafts. 3. From Whence Cometh Indo-European Tongues? Did a fresh-water lake community flee a saltwater surge that filled the Black Sea and scatter its language west toward the Atlantic, southeast toward India and northeast toward the Pacific? 4. Scripting Symbols of Shape Scripting symbolic images let man communicate over space and time. Balance of power shifts from tribal chiefs to city-state warrior kings and priests. 5. Symbols of Sound Demand Analysis The alphabet makes the pen mightier than the sword, generating the powers of knowledge needed to create and govern empires. 6. China’s InfoTech. Siblings For centuries the Chinese keep to themselves “the wasps’ secret,” and then develop printing blocks —the precursor to Gutenberg’s wondrous invention. Paper and print nourish China’s awakening that dazzles Marco Polo. 7. Islam’s Great Gifts to the West One precept of the Koran states that the human world's quest for knowledge leads to further knowing of Allah. Islam saves Classic wisdom and passes China’s the wasps’ secret to the West. 8. Charlemagne & Medieval Europe The illiterate warrior king brings the scholarly monk Alcuin and his Literary Arts & Sciences School System to France to create the Carolingian renaissance. By changing the structure of words and sentences, the monk from York makes writing forever easier to read. 9. Largest Land Empire Ever Illiterate tribes of nomad herder-hunters unite under Genghis Khan; then take less than a century to create the largest contiguous empire in world history. 10. Mongols Open the Way They open the gate blocking direct human contact between Europe and China just in time to let I.T. wonders from the East nourish the Renaissance. 11. The Missing Keys to Science Chest Ancient Greeks’ fear of the void blocked the advance of science for millennia, but Hindus in India and the Arabs unveil the numerical tools needed for modern science to emerge in the West. 12. Invaders from the North Scandinavian tongues mingle with those of their Viking cousins, but the French language may exert even greater impact on the evolution of English. The Treasure of Our Tongue nourishes the rise of democracies. 13. He Unchained Books The German goldsmith’s invention frees access to library books and breaks the chains of ignorance that held most of mankind in bondage for millennia. 14. Printers as Agents of Change After the fall of Rome, Western culture focuses for ce

FAQs

What is the central theme of Information Age Tales?

The book links advances in information technology to the sharing of knowledge and shifting balances of power across major civilizations.

How does the table of contents organize the subject matter?

It moves from early communication and writing-related topics through printing, library access, and finally cyberspace and modern knowledge-sharing.

Which figures and influences are highlighted in the front matter?

The foreword and epigraph feature Michael S. Hart and a Henry Hobhouse paraphrase, framing the goal of fostering curiosity about past InfoTech.

Aug 31, 2026

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