Devil in the Stack: Searching for the Soul of the New Machine - Andrew Smith

Descriere

From internationally-bestselling author and journalist nAndrew Smith, an immersive, alarming, sharp-eyed journey into the bizarre world nof computer code, told through his sometimes painful, often amusing attempt to nbecome a coder himself Throughout history, technological revolutions have been ndriven by the invention of machines. But today, the power of the ntechnology transforming our world lies in an intangible and impenetrable cosmos nof software: algorithmic code. So symbiotic has our relationship with this code nbecome that we barely notice it anymore. We can't see it, are not even sure how nto think about it, and yet we do almost nothing that doesn't depend on it. In a nworld increasingly governed by technologies that so few can comprehend, nwho--or what--controls the future? Devil in the Stack follows Andrew Smith on his nimmersive trip into the world of coding, passing through the stories of logic, nmachine-learning and early computing, from Ada Lovelace to Alan Turing, and up nto the present moment, behind the scenes into the lives--and minds--of the new nfrontierspeople of the 21st century: those who write code. Smith embarks on a nquest to understand this sect in what he believes to be the only way npossible: by learning to code himself. Expansive and effervescent, Devil in the Stack delivers na portrait of code as both a vivid culture and an impending threat. How do we ncontrol a technology that most people can't understand? And are we programming nourselves out of existence? Perhaps most terrifying of all: Is there nsomething about the way we compute - the way code works - that is innately at nodds with the way humans have evolved? By turns revelatory, unsettling, and njoyously funny, Devil in the Stack is an essential book for nour times, of vital interest to anyone hoping to participate in the nfuture-defining technological debates to come. nFrom internationally-bestselling author and journalist Andrew Smith, an immersive, alarming, sharp-eyed journey into the bizarre world of computer code, told through his sometimes painful, often amusing attempt to become a coder himself Throughout history, technological revolutions have been driven by the invention of machines. But today, the power of the technology transforming our world lies in an intangible and impenetrable cosmos of software: algorithmic code. So symbiotic has our relationship with this code become that we barely notice it anymore