Computer Science History

In the digital labyrinth of the 21st century, a quiet anxiety has become the soundtrack to our lives. We are drowning in notifications, yet starving for meaning. We chase the ghost of productivity, only to end the day exhausted, wondering what we accomplished. As artificial intelligence accelerates, an urgent question echoes in our boardrooms, living rooms, and classrooms: Will you be replaced, imprisoned, or empowered? The Centaur's Edge is not another technical manual or a breathless prediction of dystopia.

The intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), designed to quickly deliver thermonuclear weapons to distant targets, was the central weapons system of the Cold War. ICBMs also carried the first astronauts and cosmonauts into orbit. More than a generation later, we are still living with the political, technological, and scientific effects of the space race, while nuclear-armed ICBMs remain on alert and in the headlines around the world. Christopher Gainor explores the US Air Force's decision, in March 1954, to build the Atlas, America's first ICBM.

Some of engineering's mightiest achievements are small in scale, even hidden—and yet, without them, the complex machinery on which our modern world runs would not exist. In Nuts and Bolts, Roma Agrawal examines seven of these extraordinary elements: the nail, the wheel, the spring, the lens, the magnet, the string, and the pump. From the physics behind both Roman nails and modern skyscrapers to rudimentary springs that inspired lithium batteries, Agrawal shows us how even the most sophisticated items are built on the foundations of these ancient and fundamental breakthroughs in engineering.

Science history is chock full of world-changing innovations that initially faced skepticism and ridicule for being too unconventional: light bulbs, cars, and home computers are just a few examples. In this audiobook, we take a look at the latest out-of-the-box ideas to tackle today’s biggest challenges, including so-called sponge cities designed to combat flooding, technology that mimics photosynthesis to produce fuel, modifying bacteria’s genetic circuits to treat genetic diseases, and much more.

In a world increasingly shaped by intelligent machines, Human-AI Communication explores how humans and artificial intelligence can work together—not in competition, but in partnership. This insightful guide demystifies the evolving relationship between human creativity, intuition, and empathy with machine precision, scale, and speed. Whether you are a business leader, technologist, designer, or curious learner, this book offers practical frameworks, real-world case studies, and ethical considerations to help you navigate the future of collaborative intelligence.

In the very near future, smart “technologies and big data” will allow us to make large-scale and sophisticated interventions in politics, culture, and everyday life. Technology will allow us to solve problems in highly original ways and create new incentives to get more people to do the right thing. But how will such “solutionism” affect our society, once deeply political, moral, and irresolvable dilemmas are recast as uncontroversial and easily manageable matters of technological efficiency?

How we ultimately gained the American Customary System, the last traditional system in the world, and how Gunter's chain indelibly imprinted its dimensions on the land, on cities, and on our culture from coast to coast is both an exciting human and intellectual drama and one of the great untold stories in American history. Sagely argued and beautifully written, Measuring America offers readers nothing less than the opportunity to see America's history, and our democracy, in a brilliant new light.

Social media on the internet can be a nightmarish place. A primary shield against hateful language, violent videos, and online cruelty uploaded by users is not an algorithm. It is people. Mostly invisible by design, more than 100,000 commercial content moderators evaluate posts on mainstream social media platforms: enforcing internal policies, training artificial intelligence systems, and actively screening and removing offensive material. Roberts, an award-winning social media scholar, offers the first extensive ethnographic study of the commercial content moderation industry.

At first glance, it looks like just another auditorium in just another government building. But among the talented men (and later women) who worked in mission control, the room located on the third floor of Building 30—at what is now Johnson Space Center—would become known by many as "the Cathedral." These members of the space program were the brightest of their generations, making split-second decisions that determined the success or failure of a mission.

Lovable AI is not a fantasy. It’s the recognition that technology, when guided by empathy, ethics, and imagination, can amplify our humanity instead of replacing it. From healthcare and education to creativity and communication, AI is becoming a mirror of our best selves — when designed with heart.

L'intelligence artificielle peut vous instruire, écrire vos chansons, façonner vos désirs. Elle est brillante. Elle est utile. Elle peut tout "faire"... Sauf respirer. Sauf aimer. Sauf être. Le Souffle de la Machine n'est pas un livre sur la technologie. C'est un livre sur nous. Demain, l'intelligence artificielle permettra à un employé de faire en 10 heures le travail de 40. La vraie question n'est pas technologique, elle est humaine: que ferons-nous de ces 30 heures libérées? Exigerons-nous de cet employé qu'il produise quatre fois plus?

When we make decisions, our thinking is informed by societal norms, “guardrails” guiding our decisions, like the laws and rules that govern us. But what are good guardrails in today’s world of overwhelming information flows and increasingly powerful technologies, such as artificial intelligence? Based on the latest insights from the cognitive sciences, economics, and public policy, Guardrails offers a novel approach to shaping decisions by embracing human agency in its social context.

Since the internet's earliest days, people have died and mourned online. In quiet corners of past iterations of the web, the dead linger. But attempts at preserving the data of the dead are often ill-fated, for websites and devices decay and die, just as people do. Death disrupts technologists' plans for platforms. It reveals how digital production is always collaborative, undermining the entrepreneurial platform economy and highlighting the flaws of techno-solutionism.

In Dear Future: You Can Keep The Change, Ronee Hulk offers a haunting and deeply human exploration of artificial intelligence and its quiet unravelling of the systems that once defined who we are. With automation racing ahead of imagination; algorithms deciding what we make, trade, and even how we are valued; Could the global economy fall apart; not through disorder but through the precision of its own design?

This engaging and accessible guide unpacks the essentials of AI, from its fascinating origins to its cutting-edge applications in healthcare, education, and beyond. Discover how AI impacts your life today—and what it means for your future. In this book, we explore the ethical challenges, real-world applications, and practical insights to thrive in an AI-driven world. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, professional, or curious reader, this book offers the clarity and tools to embrace AI as a force for innovation and growth.

Discover a fascinating look into the lives of six historic trailblazers in this World War II-era story of the American women who programmed the world's first modern computer. After the end of World War II, the race for technological supremacy sped on. Top-secret research into ballistics and...

This 50th anniversary edition of Men, Machines, and Modern Times, though ultimately concerned with a positive alternative to an Orwellian 1984, offers an entertaining series of historical accounts taken from the 19th century to highlight a main theme: the nature of technological change, the fission brought about in society by such change, and society's reaction to that change.

Liquid Computing envisions a future beyond apps and interfaces—a world where artificial intelligence is ambient, adaptive, and seamlessly embedded in daily life. In this era, we don’t “use” computers; we live inside intelligent flows that span devices, contexts, and interactions. The book traces the evolution from hardware to cloud to AI as a responsive, invisible operating medium—always learning, assisting, and co-creating with us. It introduces the Liquid Interface, where interaction is natural, multimodal, and emotionally aware. Instead of commands, we converse.

Most of us spend a significant part of the day in front of a screen. Our work and social lives play out through our computers, tablets and phones: on email, social media, video conference calls and gaming servers. But what is all this screen time doing to our health, our sleep, and our relationships? Professor Pete Etchells studies the way we use screens, and how they can affect us. In UNLOCKED, he delves into the real science behind the panic about our alleged device addiction and withering attention spans.

AI + The New Human Frontier: Reimagining the Future of Time, Trust + Truth by Erica Orange, a renowned futurist, offers a compelling exploration of generative AI's potential to enhance human creativity rather than replace it. This pivotal book navigates how AI tools will help shape the human experience, and aid in augmenting human ingenuity and imagination.