Rise of the Machines
A Cybernetic History

This book deserves to be read and not ignored as this one seems to be. To understand where we are going sometimes one must first understand how we got there. The author uses a chronological approach by decade and seamlessly ties each of the stories together as if he is a writing a brilliant work of f......more

If you want a new idea, read an old book. Thomas Rid has done precisely that to reveal the lost history of ‘cybernetics’. In turn he provides new insight to many of our most pressing contemporary philosophical, technological and social questions. It’s rare to read a current affairs book that doesn’t......more

This book began with a heavy and decided focus on Claude Shannon's contribution to the field of cybernetics. Though I have read a lot about Shannon's work, this was the first time it was skewed to highlight his contribution to our understanding of cyborgs. Back when I learned about philosophy of min......more

O que é que queremos dizer quando afixamos o prefixo ciber a qualquer conceito? Cibernético, ciberespaço, ciberguerra, cyborg, cyberpunk. São termos que nos rodeiam num dia a dia contemporâneo, dependente de tecnologias digitais. Neste livro, Thomas Rid leva-nos numa viagem à descoberta da origem de......more

The Soul of a New Machine, a painstakingly detailed tale of the personalities and technical work involved in the development of a new microcomputer back in the '70s echoed in my mind as I read this book. Written by Tracy Kidder, it was a brilliantly balanced combination of the technical and the huma......more