Since their invention, computers have kept revolutionizing the world at a
staggering pace. And yet, if on one side this ongoing revolution keeps
providing an incessant stream of novel and previously unimaginable
technologies, on the other, as with all revolutions, its profound
effects threaten to upend much of the previous world order. Facing the
many questions that this change is urgently raising will require to
acquire a novel and interdisciplinary understanding of the powerful
forces that govern this process. Sitting squarely at the crossroads of
computer science, history, socioeconomics, ethics, and philosophy, and
written by an insider who contributed foundational work to many of the
latest and most pervasive technologies this book offers a much-needed
reframing of the past, present and future of computing, that goes far
beyond the typical chronological record of events and arms us with a
uniquely broad and integrated analysis of their complex origins and
their numerous side effects.
