Talking Back to the Machine

From the editors of the wildly successful Beyond Calculation, acclaimed by the New York Times for its "astonishing intellectual reach," comes a new collection of equal brilliance. Focusing on the human impact of computers, Talking to the Machine features such outstanding thinkers as Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann, bestselling author James Burke, Defense Secretary William Perry and others, as they describe the many ways, both good and bad, in which our lives will be altered by information technology, and what we can do to influence these changes.

Texte du rabat

From the editors of the wildly successful Beyond Calculation comes another exploration of the overwhelming impact of computers on our future. This time, the essays focus on the human impact of computer technology and culture: how computers will affect the ways we teach, learn, communicate, relate to each other, and live in the coming decades. The contributors, representing the best of many fields, include Secretary of Defense William Perry on how computers will affect warfare; Brian Ferrin on technology and storytelling; Patti Maes on intelligent agents; Nobel Laureate Murray Gell-Mann on the quality of information; Eliot Soloway on the impact of computers on education; and many more. Like Beyond Calculation, praised by the New York Times for its "astonishing intellectual reach," this sequel engages readers with some of the most compelling and important issues of our time.

Contenu
Content.- 1. The Folly of Prediction.- 2. Life Without Bits.- 3. Alternative Computing.- 4. Very Personal Computers.- 5. I, Software.- 6. The Lost Art of Storytelling.- 7. The Digital Battlefield.- 8. Entering the Age of Convenience.- 9. In the Belly of the Net.- 10. When Computers Become Human.- 11. A Half Century of Surprises.- 12. The Interactive Classroom.- 13. Delivering Bandwidth Like Pizza.- 14. Weird Futures.- 15. Teleportation, Time Travel, and Immortality.- 16. Pulling Diamonds from the Clay.- Closing Connections.- The Relics of '97.