Computer History

Whether you called it electro, indie dance, or were too busy scouring the internet for MP3s to care about a genre name, Never Be Alone Again: How Bloghouse United the Internet and the Dancefloor connects the disparate parts of an under-documented era in the first book focused on the musical and cultural phenomenon called bloghouse.

Cult of the Dead Cow is the tale of the oldest, most respected, and most famous American hacking group of all time. Though until now it has remained mostly anonymous, its members invented the concept of hacktivism. Today, the group and its followers are battling electoral misinformation, making personal data safer, and battling to keep technology a force for good instead of for surveillance and oppression. Cult of the Dead Cow shows how governments, corporations, and criminals came to hold immense power over individuals and how we can fight back against them.

In The Trail of Gold and Silver, historian Duane A. Smith details Colorado's mining saga - a story that stretches from the beginning of the gold and silver mining rush in the mid-19th century into the 21st century. Gold and silver mining laid the foundation for Colorado's economy, and 1859 marked the beginning of a fever for these precious metals.

Nearly fifty years into IBM’s existence, Thomas Watson Jr. undertook the biggest gamble in business history when he “bet the farm” on the creation of the IBM System/360, the world’s first fully integrated and compatible mainframe computer. As CEO, Watson drove a revolution no other company—then or now—would dare, laying the foundation for the digital age that has transformed every society, corporation, and government. The story of Watson being “present at the creation” of the digital age is intertwined with near-Shakespearean personal drama

When most of us think about artificial intelligence, our minds go straight to cyborgs, robots, and sci-fi thrillers where machines take over the world. But the truth is that artificial intelligence is already among us. It exists in our smartphones, fitness trackers, and refrigerators that tell us when the milk will expire. In some ways the future people dreamed of at the World's Fair in the 1960s is already here. We're teaching our machines how to think like humans, and they're learning at an incredible rate.

For over three decades, Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his classic The Age of Spiritual Machines, he argued that computers would soon rival the full range of human intelligence at its best. Now he examines the next step in this inexorable evolutionary process: The union of human and machine, in which the knowledge and skills embedded in our brains will be combined with the vastly greater capacity, speed, and knowledge-sharing ability of our creations.

The smartphones in our pockets and computers like brains. The vagaries of game theory and evolutionary biology. Nuclear weapons and self-replicating spacecrafts. All bear the fingerprints of one remarkable, yet largely overlooked, man: John von Neumann.

In 1901, Buffalo, New York, the eighth biggest city in America, wanted to launch the new century with the Pan American Exposition. It would showcase the Western hemisphere and bring millions of people to Western New York. With Niagara Falls as a drawing card, and with stunning colors and electric lights, promoters believed it would be bigger, better, and - literally - more brilliant than Chicago's White City of 1893.

Ich dachte, Palantir sei nur ein Name – ein weiteres Tech-Unternehmen im endlosen Strom digitaler Innovation. Ich lag falsch! Was ich entdeckt habe, ist kein harmloses Start-up, sondern das Herzstück einer neuen globalen Kontrollarchitektur. Eine Software, geboren im Krieg, perfektioniert zur Überwachung und Manipulation ganzer Gesellschaften – und nun auf dem Weg in dein Leben. Ich erzähle nicht nur, was Palantir tut – ich zeige, was es mit uns macht. Mit unserem Denken, unserem Handeln, unserem Vertrauen in Demokratie, Recht und Menschlichkeit.

From clunky mechanical calculators to sleek quantum processors, Code and Circuit traces the extraordinary journey of computing—from its earliest beginnings to the innovations shaping our digital future. Discover the groundbreaking ideas, brilliant minds, and pivotal moments that transformed computers from room-sized machines into the lifeblood of modern civilization. Meet the pioneers who built the foundations of programming, explore the rise of artificial intelligence, and uncover the hidden stories behind the technology we take for granted. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, history buff...

Demystify Artificial Intelligence and see its impact in your life, effortlessly, with no technical background required! Do you find it challenging to comprehend AI without feeling overwhelmed by technical jargon? Are you eager to understand the ethical implications of AI and its effect on your daily life? Are you curious about how AI algorithms can reinforce societal biases and want clear, reliable answers? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you're not alone. Many adults like you seek to grasp the basics of AI and its relevance but struggle with complex information overload.

In this fully revised and updated edition of his internationally best-selling book, pioneering theorist and entrepreneur Matthew Ball goes beyond the hype cycle to present a definitive account of the future of the internet. The Metaverse, according to Ball’s industry-shaping definition, is a persistent and interconnected network of 3D virtual worlds that will eventually serve as the gateway to most online experiences and underpin much of the physical world.

In the 1970s, Atari became the leader in home video gaming with the Atari 2600. But were they the first? And how did it evolve into the revolutionary games and systems of today? Listen to learn the answers to these questions and more.

Over the past five decades, the tech industry has grown into one of the most important sectors of the global economy, and Silicon Valley - replete with sprawling office parks, sky-high rents, and countless self-made millionaires - is home to many of its key players. But the origins of Silicon Valley and the tech sector are much humbler. At a time when tech companies’ influence continues to grow, The Big Score chronicles how they began.

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is neither a hand-wringing narrative of danger and decline nor a digital fairy tale. Rather, it offers a deeply reasoned and evocative examination of the contests over the next chapter of capitalism that will decide the meaning of information civilization in the 21st century. The stark issue at hand is whether we will be the masters of information and machines or its slaves.

Astrophysicist J. Craig Wheeler, former president of the American Astronomical Society, takes a critical look at the technological advances shaping our future. From artificial intelligence to genetic engineering, Wheeler explores how these innovations are interconnected and the potential they hold for humanity's evolution. With thought-provoking insights into the ethical dilemmas we face, Wheeler stresses the importance of staying informed and proactive.

No one noticed when capitalism died. Perhaps we were too distracted by the implosion of global finance, or the rise of populism, or the demise of the planet - or all of those cute cats on Instagram. But gradually, quietly, a yet more exploitative new system has taken hold: techno-feudalism. Crafted in the form of a letter to his late father, who first taught him about the power of new technologies to shape human history, Yanis Varoufakis explains how Big Tech has effected an invisible but fundamental transformation in all our lives.

The answer to our contemporary chaos is to practice a rule of life that aligns our habits to our beliefs. The Common Rule offers four daily and four weekly habits, designed to help us create new routines and transform frazzled days into lives of love for God and neighbor.

En una era que busca fomentar la innovación, la creatividad y el trabajo en equipo, Los innovadores es la obra que mejor muestra cómo se producen. Tras su extraordinaria biografía de Steve Jobs, el nuevo libro de Walter Isaacson cuenta la fascinante historia de las personas que inventaron el ordenador e internet; Los innovadores está destinado a convertirse en la historia definitiva de la revolución digital y en una guía indispensable para entender cómo sucede realmente la innovación.

Charles Eisenstein explores the history and potential future of civilization, tracing the converging crises of our age to the illusion of the separate self. He argues that our disconnection from one another and the natural world has mislaid the foundations of science, religion, money, technology, economics, medicine, and education as we know them. It has fired our near-pathological pursuit of technological Utopias even as we push ourselves and our planet to the brink of collapse.