Short description of the book:

From the advent of electronic communications, there's been talk about how the world has been shrinking. Frances Cairncross, senior editor for the Economist, makes her case from an economical standpoint: The growing ease and speed of communication is creating a world where the miles have little to do with our ability to work or interact together. Cairncross predicts that it won't be long before people organize globally on the basis of language and three basic time shifts--one for the Americas, one for Europe, and one for East Asia and Australia. Much work that can be done on a computer can be done from anywhere. Workers can code software in one part of the world and pass it to a company hundreds of miles away that will assemble the code for marketing. And with workers able to earn a living from anywhere, countries may find themselves competing for citizens as people relocate for reasons ranging from lower taxes to nicer weather. Cairncross discusses about 30 major changes likely to result from these trends, including greater self-policing of businesses, an unavoidable loss of personal privacy, and a diminishing need for countries to want emigration.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Communications Revolution

Chapter 2: The Telephone

Chapter 3: The Television

Chapter 4: The Internet

Chapter 5: Commerce and Companies

Chapter 6: Competition, Concentration and Monopoly

Chapter 7: Policing the Electronic World

Chapter 8: The Economy

Chapter 9: Society, Culture, and the Individual

Chapter 10: Government and the Nation-State

How will the death of distance shape the future?
- Click here to read Cairncross' (controversial) predictions

More Reviews

What will be the most significant economic factor to shape our future? Renowned Economist writer Frances Cairncross proclaims that it's the "death of distance" caused by the communications revolution. This book suggests that everything will change within the next century, from our relationships with people to our home and work lives to our government. Because the Internet removes all geographic boundaries, Cairncross asserts that people and businesses will relocate wherever they want, making it difficult for countries to enforce tax laws. Governments will be under extreme pressure to offer the best public services to attract businesses and individuals. Cairncross also predicts that people's reading and writing skills will improve because they'll have to communicate effectively using electronic means. Although Cairncross voices concerns over our inability to "control" what goes over the Internet, she ultimately looks on the communications revolution as enabling a more liberal exchange of ideas. This perceptive book, written for a general rather than technical audience, adds yet another voice to the debate over the pros and cons of a technical society.

The Washington Post, December 21, 1997
"Cairncross accurately describes why the Internet is so important, how it will challenge today's concepts of the telephone and television-and how it will be the catalyst for carrying out most of her predictions."

adosaj@cablelan.net from British Columbia and doctoral student at Pepperdine University, California! , May 25, 1999 What could happen in a world without borders The Death of Distance Frances Cairncross presents a compelling and thought-provoking analysis of a rapidly shrinking world as she presents a story of a revolution – a technological revolution, where three technologies namely the telephone, the TV and the networked computer are literally making everywhere here. As the senior editor of the Economist magazine, her analyses of world markets not just from an economics perspective, but from cultural, emotional and societal viewpoints is breathtaking. Distance will become irrelevant, she argues and it won't be long before people across the globe will organize their work on the basis of language and three time shifts – one for the Americas, one for Europe and one for East Asia and Australia. She discusses the implications of workers able to earn a living from anywhere and countries finding themselves competing for citizens as people relocate for reasons ranging from lower taxes to nicer weather. Cairncross discusses about 30 major changes likely to result from the technology-driven revolution including a shifting landscape in terms of freedom, privacy and intellectual property, the changing role of government and the implications for the concept of the nation state, citizenship, regulation and laws in a world without borders, in a world where distance is irrelevant.

Editor, Stern's Management Review and Stern's SourceFinder, (stern@hrconsultant.com) from Culver City, CA , March 21, 1999 Thought provoking and ambitiously broad ranging! This is an up-beat view about how technology will ultimately transform every aspect of life. Focusing on future trends, its chapters cover: the telephone; the television; the internet; commerce and companies; competition, concentration and monopoly; policing the electronic world; the economy; society, culture, and the individual; and government and the nation state. This is a thoughtful work. It conveys a wealth of information. Its scope is ambitiously broad ranging and I have found it highly readable.

A reader from USA , March 15, 1999 A what may occur in the Info Age diary The book is a good read if you are just beginning to learn about the Information Revolution. If you already know the author simply states the obvious: the Internet connects people to information, services and entertainment. Nothing new.

A reader from Arlington, VA , January 31, 1999 Too optimistic, but a decent overview This book paints a bright, sunny picture of the Utopia that will be created by the spread of communications technology such as the Internet. Work will become more fun, governments will be forced to cut taxes, people will talk to each other more, and world peace and prosperity will soon follow. I don't buy it; the analysis is far too one-sided, and, while there will doubtless be benefits of increased communication, there will also be downsides (though it's probably impossible to say what they'll turn out to be) and it won't fix all the world's problems, as Cairncross seems to think.

dubreil@stud.iot.ntnu.no from Trondheim, Norway , September 9, 1998

Naive, simple-minded and utopic... This kind of book is likely to lead the reader in wrong and simplistic insights of what is going on. Yet the beginning offers a relevant overview of the evolution of communications, that is, the Telephone, the Television and the Internet. Consequently man can quite well understand that these three medias will merge in the future and that information will really overwelhm the customer. Nevertheless Frances Cairncross loses her relevance as soon as she tries dramatically to convince the reader of an happy end, a "global peace", where most people are freed from policy. But she does not speak about the power of money, the deep consequences of theses big corporations that she only touches on.

Robert M. Parker (rmp@iastate.edu) from Ames, Iowa , March 19, 1998

The Impact of the Interactive Age, for Everyone This is an easy-to-read, interesting book for business people and others who want to know how the Interactive Age will change the world. Francis Cairncross, who writes in The Economist for people who think, has studied and thought a great deal, and it shows. Cairncross says that the improvements now being developed in telephony, television and the Internet will touch every single life within a few years. Fundamental changes in how we learn, get food, deal with friends, enemies and lovers, make money and pay for goods are definitely in the works. And that distance will no longer dictate how we communicate. This is not fantasy, this is the right stuff. Anyone who expects to be around longer than a very few years had better listen up.

Craig Patchett from San Diego, CA , January 16, 1998

Distance will die, individualism will not Unlike the reader from Canada, I believe that Ms. Cairncross' assertion that distance is dying is quite accurate. The Internet, and particularly the Web, removes physical distance and allows people to communicate with each other in a way that is completely independent of where they live. It does not, however, remove cultural, emotional, intellectual, or spiritual distance. For this reason the advance of modern communications methods will never result in the homogeneous society many seem to fear. Our individualism will remain intact but our exposure to the world around us will continue to increase exponentially (both to our benefit and detriment). Ms. Cairncross has accurately grasped the true impact of the Internet and those who are able to leverage this impact will be the ones who guide the future of the medium.

A reader from Toronto, Canada , December 16, 1997 Despite the author's promise, distance will not die. Francis Cairncross's book The Death of Distance is the best of a series of new publications (and articles) insisting that the ongoing communication revolution will shape a borderless, McLuhanesque world in which the "tyranny of geography" disappears. It is, simply, the death of distance. Attractive as this utopia is, it won't happen. The history of both communications and transportation argues against this dream. Distance did not disappear with the rapidity of the telephone, the simultaneity of television, or the universality of radio. Planes, trains and automobiles have not made Europe--or North America--into amorphous places. Even with high speed transportation, where one lives is still important. Language and distinct cultures of location persist. Distance does not die because of telecommunication. Distinct geographies persist. I'm part of another, contrarian tradition. One articulated in, for example, The Message Is the Medium (1996: Praeger books). It sees the new technologies as evolutionary, extending changes which have been ongoing in communications and transportations for at least a century. From this perspective, Cairncross' vision, while well read and well argued, is utopian and if attractive, unlikely to be realized. Tom Koch, author: The Message Is the Medium. 1996.