Showing titles in History

Literary Theory for Robots reveals the hidden history of modern machine intelligence, taking listeners on a spellbinding journey from medieval Arabic philosophy to visions of a universal language, past Hollywood fiction factories, and missile defense systems trained on Russian folktales. In this provocative reflection on the shared pasts of literature and computer science, former Microsoft engineer and professor of comparative literature Dennis Yi Tenen provides crucial context for recent developments in AI, which holds important lessons for the future of humans living with smart technology.

Hacker culture can be esoteric, but this entertaining reference is here to help. Written by a longtime hacker, this fun reference introduces you to key people and companies, fundamental ideas, and milestone films, games, and magazines in the annals of hacking. From phreaking to deepfakes, and from APT (advanced package tool) to zombie malware, grasping the terminology is crucial to understanding hacker culture and history.

The story of the compass is shrouded in mystery and myth, yet most will agree it begins around the time of the birth of Christ in ancient China. A mysterious lodestone whose powers affected metal was known to the Chinese emperor. When this piece of metal was suspended in water, it always pointed...

Sugar substitutes have been a part of American life since saccharin was introduced at the 1893 World's Fair. In Empty Pleasures, the first history of artificial sweeteners in America, Carolyn de la Pena blends popular culture with business and women's history, examining the invention, production, marketing, regulation, and consumption of sugar substitutes such as saccharin, Sucaryl, NutraSweet, and Splenda.

Engineering Hitler's Downfall features numerous inventions such as the decoding machines developed at Bletchley Park; the hand-held mine detectors that cleared pathways through enemy minefields, firstly at the Battle of el Alamein but also in most subsequent actions; the newly-located factories and tanks that enabled the Russians to repulse the German invasion; the escort carriers and long range aircraft that enabled U-boats to be attacked in the mid-Atlantic; and the 4000 plus Bailey bridges that allowed narrow ravines and rivers as wide as the Rhine to be crossed.

L'odissea nera di John von Neumann, l'uomo che disegnò la mappa infernale del mondo che oggi abitiamo, nel nuovo straordinario libro di Benjamín Labatut. Quando alla fine della seconda guerra mondiale John von Neumann concepisce il MANIAC – un calcolatore universale che doveva, nelle intenzioni del suo creatore, «afferrare la scienza alla gola scatenando un potere di calcolo illimitato» –, sono in pochi a rendersi conto che il mondo sta per cambiare per sempre.

An incredible, true-life adventure set on the most dangerous frontier of all—outer spaceIn the nearly forty years since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, space travel has come to be seen as a routine enterprise—at least until the shuttle Columbia disintegrated like the Challenger before it...

In the year 1600, a monk is burned at the stake for claiming to have built a device that will allow him to know all things. 350 years later, having witnessed 'Trinity' — the first test of the atomic bomb — America's leading scientist outlines a memory machine that will help end war on earth. 25 years in the making, an ex-soldier finally unveils this 'machine for augmenting human intellect', dazzling as he stands 'Zeus-like, dealing lightning with both hands'.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER "Succinct and readable.... If you suffer from digital anxiety ... here is a book that lays it all out for you." --Newsday In lively, mordantly witty prose, Negroponte decodes the mysteries--and debunks the hype--surrounding bandwidth, multimedia, virtual reality, and...

En esta monumental historia, Vaclav Smil ofrece una impresionante panorámica de cómo la energía ha impulsado el progreso cultural y económico de las sociedades humanas durante los últimos diez mil años, desde los primeros grupos de cazadores-recolectores hasta la civilización fósil, pasando por las sociedades agrícolas tradicionales y la "gran transición" que lo cambió todo.

An homage to society's innovators and maintainers, Wicked Problems offers a refreshing vision for listeners of all backgrounds to build a better future and demonstrates how engineering is a cultural choice-one that requires us to restlessly find ways to transform society, but perhaps more critically, to care for the creations that already exist.

In 1919, in the wake of the First World War, a group of extraordinary women came together to create the Women's Engineering Society. They were trailblazers, pioneers and boundary breakers, but many of their stories have been lost to history. To mark the centenary of the society's creation, Magnificent Women and Their Revolutionary Machines brings them back to life. 

2015 Audie Award Finalist for Nonfiction Following his blockbuster biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson’s New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed The Innovators is a “riveting, propulsive, and at times deeply moving” (The Atlantic) story of the people who created the...

Many of us learn about the major inventions that shape our world. But we too often overlook the objects we use every day. In The Story Behind, Emily Prokop, creator of the Webby Award nominated podcast, explores the who, how, and huh? of everything from Band-Aids to bubble gum; hypnosis to Hula Hoops; and lullabies to lead pipes. Along the way, she demonstrates how the major events of history - from wars, plagues and revolutions to historic achievements and discoveries - have influenced some of the world’s most pervasive inventions. 

Television is probably something we nowadays take for granted. There is a TV in almost every home, a TV in almost every public building - basically, where there is a signal, there is a TV. Found in millions of homes, it is probably difficult to imagine that the first television was created less than a century ago. In such a short time, we managed to go from silent moving images to 3D lifelike images on a flat screen.

De 20ste eeuw is de eeuw van de massamotorisering. In 1913 begon de eerste massale serieproductie van auto’s in Amerika. Door een efficiënt productieproces lukte het de industrieel Henry Ford om de T-Ford relatief goedkoop op de markt te brengen en daarmee toegankelijk te maken voor de groeiende middenklasse. In Europa kwam de automobilisering van de samenleving pas op gang na 1960. Elk Europees industrieland leverde een eigen bijdrage.

From the New York Times bestselling author, a thrilling history of the telephone and how we fell in and out of love with a technology that changed not just the world, but changed us. 'Charts our distance-compressing, time-shifting telephonic adventure with exceptional brio and subtlety' –...

He was a genius who gave the world access to technology that is still changing the world. To this day, his greatest accomplishment is the iPhone and still is. Taken away too soon, his legacy still lives on. Countless entrepreneurs look up to him and use his advice to succeed in the business world. If it wasn't for him, we would have never been introduced to portable computers and mobile phones with touch screens.

Historian Thomas J. Misa's sweeping history of the relationship between technology and society over the past 500 years reveals how technological innovations have shaped—and have been shaped by—the cultures in which they arose. In this edition, Misa brings his acclaimed text up to date by drawing on current scholarship while retaining sharply drawn portraits of individual people, artifacts, and systems. A masterful analysis of technology and culture, Leonardo to the Internet frames a history that illuminates modern-day problems and prospects of a technology-dependent world.

By turns fascinating and scary, Artificial Intelligence takes the listener on an amazing journey that covers everything from the habits of ants to the world of the stock market. This edition has been fully updated to take account of the latest developments.