"Facebook's algorithms shaping the news. Self-driving cars roaming the streets. Revolution on Twitter and romance on Tinder. We live in a world constructed of code--and coders are the ones who built it for us. From acclaimed tech writer Clive Thompson comes a brilliant anthropological reckoning with the most powerful tribe in the world today, computer programmers, in a book that interrogates who they are, how they think, what qualifies as greatness...

"El cambio de siglo trajo consigo nuevas posibilidades de acercamiento a la escritura. Desde el traslado de la frontera entre plagio y creación, y la reapropiación y reescritura de textos ya existentes, hasta el amplio abanico de posibilidades desatado por el estallido de las tecnologías comunicativas, la escritura ha dejado de ser el espacio de introspección autoral privilegiado por el romanticismo para convertirse en una experiencia de la comunalidad...

"The Other Side of Empathy argues that empathy itself is a culturally created and maintained affective ideology deployed to make sense of a world that has been irrevocably distorted by colonization and technology. Understanding empathy culture, and empathy as an ideology allows for an exploration of its arbitrariness, cultural contradictions, and limits. An analysis of "human zoos," as presented in colonial photography and in their digital afterlife,...

Humanity has reached a critical moment. Our world is unsettled and rapidly changing, and we face existential risks over the next century. Various outcomes--good and bad--are possible. Yet our approach to the future is characterized by short-term thinking, polarizing debates, alarmist rhetoric, and pessimism. In this short, exhilarating book, renowned scientist and bestselling author Martin Rees argues that humanity's prospects depend on our taking...

"A collection of 20-25 essays from prominent voices that brings forward creative, bold opinions that will examine the current state and impact of technology on our society and will highlight solutions for constructive change. Sample topics may include: 1) the impact of technology on elections and global democratic institutions; 2) the evisceration of longstanding privacy norms and standards; 3) the impact of technology on kids and teenagers; 4) the...

"A revealing look at how tech industry bias and blind spots get baked into digital products--and harm us all. Buying groceries, tracking our health, finding a date: whatever we want to do, odds are that we can now do it online. But few of us ask why all these digital products are designed the way they are. It's time we change that. Many of the services we rely on are full of oversights, biases, and downright ethical nightmares: Chatbots that harass...

"The beloved author of The Revenge of Analog lays out a case for a human future--not the false technological utopia we've been living. For years, consumers have been promised a simple, carefree digital future. We could live, work, learn, and play from the comforts of our homes, and have whatever we desire brought to our door with the flick of a finger. Instant communication would bring us together. Technological convenience would give us more time...

"Two bestselling authors overturn conventional wisdom about how economies work, revealing the untold story of who wins and who loses the rewards of prosperity, in a work that fundamentally transforms how we look at and understand the world"-- Artificial intelligence and other innovative technologies won't guarantee a rising standard of living for workers, according to this lucid manifesto. MIT economists Acemoglu and Johnson explore historical instances...

From an engineer and futurist, an impassioned account of technological stagnation since the 1970s and an imaginative blueprint for a richer, more abundant future The science fiction of the 1960s promised us a future remade by technological innovation: we'd vacation in geodesic domes on Mars, have meaningful conversations with computers, and drop our children off at school in flying cars. Fast-forward 60 years, and we're still stuck in traffic in gas-guzzling...

"A practical guide to "narrative thinking," and why it matters in a world defined by data. In The Sea We Swim In, Frank Rose leads us to a new understanding of stories and their role in our lives. For decades, experts from many fields-psychologists, economists, advertising and marketing executives-failed to register the power of narrative. Scientists thought stories were frivolous. Economists were knee-deep in theory. Marketers just wanted to cut...