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The Standards That Run the World: Power, Protocols, and the Quiet Battles That Decide How Technology Works
Paperback
Series: Infrastructure - The Hidden World
Business GeneralTechnology & EngineeringInternational Relations
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: May 14 2026
Pages: 348
Weight: 1.03
Height: 0.72 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Most books about technology tell the story of invention: who built the machine, wrote the code, designed the network or discovered the principle. This book tells the next part of the story: who decided which version of the technology the world would use.
These agreements are standards. They are usually invisible. They are rarely neutral.
The Standards That Run the World traces the hidden battles behind railway gauges, telegraphy, electricity, telephone numbering, spectrum, GSM, CDMA, the internet, encryption, VHS, Blu-ray, LTE, shipping containers, China's standards strategy, artificial intelligence and orbit.
It argues that standards are where technical design becomes economic power and political order. They determine who can connect, who can manufacture, who can charge royalties, who can exclude competitors, who can govern networks, and whose systems the rest of the world must accommodate.
This is a book for readers interested in technology, geopolitics, infrastructure, business strategy and the hidden systems that make modern life work.
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