This book is an account of the dreams of cyberspace pioneers. It describes the circumstances and scientific visions from which electronics, computer science and telecommunications emerged. These pioneers – viewed as “odd” or “eccentric” by their contemporaries – have enabled us to communicate in a “global village” where the space that separates different nations and the time it takes to reach them are no longer a limit: the only limit is our desire to learn. “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. — Arthur C. Clarke