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Tools for thought : the history and future of mind-expanding technology (New ed)

Part of the Tools for Thought series
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The digital revolution did not begin with the teenage millionaires of Silicon Valley, claims Howard Rheingold, but with such early intellectual giants as Charles Babbage, George Boole and John von Neumann.

In a highly engaging style, Rheingold tells the story of what he calls the partiarchs, poineers and infonauts of the computer, focusing in particular on such pioneers as J.C.R.

Licklider, Doug Engelbart, Bob Taylor and Alan Kay. Taking the reader step by step from 19th-century mathematics to contemporary computing, he introduces a fascinating collection of eccentrics, mavericks, geniuses and visionaries.The book was originally published in 1985, and Rheingold's attempt to envision computing in the 1990s turns out to have been remarkably prescient.

This edition contains an afterword, in which Rheingold interviews some of the pioneers discussed in the book.

As an exercise in what he calls "retrospective futurism", Rheingold also looks back at how he looked forward.

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Product Details
MIT Press
0262681153 / 9780262681155
Paperback / softback
13/04/2000
United States
English
336p.
23 cm
postgraduate /research & professional /undergraduate Learn More
Previous ed.: 1985.