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Title details for Rise of the Machines by Thomas Rid - Available

Rise of the Machines

A Cybernetic History

by Thomas Rid
Robertson Dean
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
As lives offline and online merge, it's easy to forget how we got here. Rise of the Machines reclaims the story of cybernetics, a control theory of man and machine. Thomas Rid delivers a portrait of our technology enraptured era. Springing from mathematician Norbert Wiener amid the devastation of World War II, the cybernetic vision underpinned a host of myths about the future of machines. This vision radically transformed the postwar world, ushering in sweeping cultural change. Cybernetics triggered cults, the Whole Earth Catalog, and feminist manifestos, just as it fueled martial gizmos and the air force's foray into virtual space. As Rid shows, cybernetics proved a powerful tool for two competing factions-those who sought to make a better world and those who sought to control the one at hand. In the Bay Area, techno-libertarians embraced networked machines as the portal to a new electronic frontier. In Washington, DC, cyberspace provided the perfect theater for dominance and war. That "first cyberwar" went on for years-and indeed has never stopped. In our cybernetic future, the line between utopia and dystopia continues to be disturbingly thin.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 28, 2016

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781681681917
      • File size: 374340 KB
      • Duration: 12:59:52

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This fascinating history of machine intelligence approaches the subject by examining the mythologies our culture has created about machines that can "think"--and traces the history of such mythology through the last hundred years. Narrator Robertson Dean's deep, gravelly voice is the perfect choice for this production. He skillfully navigates the somewhat technical prose with the right amount of inflection and speed to make the work more compelling than some readers might find it. His baritone voice and deliberate cadence create a foreboding tone that enhance Rid's critical view of these converging mythologies and the ways the technology may promise to revolutionize life for the better but may also leave society in far more precarious situations. L.E. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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