There are two things this book is not.
First, it is not the kind of work that Soul of a New Machine by Tracie Kidder was. In that book, a crash skunk-works program created a new machine which was not a breakthrough and did so, offering a glimpse into the lives and work habits of individuals and a company driven to compete by producing a new but non disruptive technological device consisting of hardware and software. It was a fast and fun read.
Second, it is not the end of the story of the Phaneron; it is just the beginning.
What it is is two things.
First, it is a window into a story of intense commitment to a dangerously contagious idea about how information is in its native state as relative knowledge, and how that structure was created in software. To this end Zuchero's book exposes some of the known gritty details and opens up a view onto the landscape which this idea creates. It makes some comparisons to the current state of information/knowledge technology, but that is not the point. The differences are subtle and profound in their effect. The point is to understand the new paradigm.
Second, it is a story about how one individual saw through a veil of mystery surrounding that dangerously contagious idea. It is now. A small team of people, led by Jane Mazzagatti, has developed this idea into workable software which will someday enable machine intelligence, not by aping the structures and pathways of human intelligence, but by using the emergent property of accumulated knowledge in a relatively pure form, software. Jane risked her career more than once to continue to bring her vision of this idea to life by making it practical.
To miss this book is to miss a smarter future.