Showing titles in History & Culture

In Private Power and Democracy's Decline, Mordecai Kurz explores the relationship between free-market capitalism and democracy. He shows that technology has made capitalism different from what was envisioned in the Age of Enlightenment. Technology creates centers of market power and monopoly concentration that result in a society in which some people are enriched immensely while many workers' livelihoods are often destroyed.

A New York Times Notable Book Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction A New York Times Bestseller Named a Best Book of the Year by Smithsonian, Scientific American, and Elle Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, NYPL Helen Bernstein Award, Whiting...

We are entering a new technological age in which artificial intelligence and immersive media will transform society at all levels, mediating our lives by altering what we see, hear, and experience. If managed well, this could unleash a new age of abundance. If managed poorly, this technological revolution could easily go astray, compromising our privacy, autonomy, agency, and humanity. Two industry veterans provide a data-driven debate on whether the new world we're creating will be a technological utopia or an AI-powered dystopia and give guidance on how to aim for the best future we can.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE By an award-winning technology reporter for The Wall Street Journal, a behind-the-scenes look at the manipulative tactics Facebook used to grow its business, how it distorted the way we connect online, and the company insiders who found the...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An exhilarating tour of humanity's next great technological achievement—quantum computing—which may supercharge artificial intelligence, solve some of humanity's biggest problems, like global warming, world hunger, and incurable disease, and eventually...

An electrifying biography of one of the most extraordinary scientists of the twentieth century and the world he made. The smartphones in our pockets and computers like brains. The vagaries of game theory and evolutionary biology. Nuclear weapons and self-replicating spacecrafts. All bear...

A simple, enduring framework for understanding the complex world of AI and machine learning. “Before you can get machines to do what you want, you’d better learn to speak their language. John Maeda engineers rapprochement between humans and our computational creations in this engaging...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An “irresistible” (The Washington Post) true story of love, murder, and the last moments of the “great hush” before wireless radio connected the world, from the renowned author of The Devil in the White City and The Demon of Unrest “Gripping . . . an...

Why doesn’t the explosive growth of companies like Facebook and Uber deliver more prosperity for everyone? What is the systemic problem that sets the rich against the poor and the technologists against everybody else? When protesters shattered the windows of a bus carrying Google employees to...

"This extraordinarily powerful book demonstrates how utterly we lack the shared supranational tools needed to fight cybercrime. Essential reading." --Roberto Saviano, author of Gommorah The benefits of living in a digital, globalized society are enormous; so too are the dangers. The world has...

World-renowned economist Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, explains that we have an opportunity to shape the fourth industrial revolu­tion, which will fundamentally alter how we live and work. Schwab argues that this revolution is different in scale...

In his first book since the bestselling Fermat's Enigma, Simon Singh offers the first sweeping history of encryption, tracing its evolution and revealing the dramatic effects codes have had on wars, nations, and individual lives. From Mary, Queen of Scots, trapped by her own code, to the Navajo...

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice "In Daub’s hands the founding concepts of Silicon Valley don’t make money; they fall apart." --The New York Times Book Review From FSGO x Logic: a Stanford professor's spirited dismantling of Silicon Valley's intellectual origins Adrian...

The instant New York Times bestseller. From Microsoft's president and one of the tech industry's broadest thinkers, a frank and thoughtful reckoning with how to balance enormous promise and existential risk as the digitization of everything accelerates. “A colorful and insightful insiders’...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER “The conscience of the AI revolution” (Fortune) explains how we’ve arrived at an era of AI harms and oppression, and what we can do to avoid its pitfalls. “AI is not coming, it’s here. If we answer the beautiful call inside these pages, we can decide who we are...

In Step into the Metaverse, Dr. Mark van Rijmenam delivers a startlingly insightful discussion about how the world as we know it will fundamentally change as the physical and the digital worlds merge into the metaverse, impacting the everyday experiences of people, companies, and societies. The author maps out the extraordinary opportunities and challenges facing business leaders, consumers, regulators, policymakers, and other metaverse stakeholders trying to navigate the future of the Internet.

Jian Wang was the founder and architect of Alibaba's cloud and has been the driving force behind its technology innovations. He was also the founder of the City Brain initiative to develop a new digital infrastructure for sustainable cities. 

Addresses how tech empowers community organizing and protest movements to combat the systems of capitalism and data exploitation that helped drive tech’s own rise to ubiquity. Our smartphones have brought digital technology into the most intimate spheres of life. It’s time to take control of...

Have you ever wanted to reinvent yourself? Have you ever lied about who you are to get more likes? Have you ever followed someone online who you think is perfect? Meet Holly. Social media sensation. The face of clean eating. Everyone loves her. Everyone wants to be her. But when Holly is attacked by a man she's only just met, her life starts to spiral out of control. He seemed to know her - but she doesn't know him. What if Holly isn't who she seems to be? What if Holly's living a lie?

Supported by academic research focused on technology, Media Moms and Digital Dads breaks down complex issues in a friendly, accessible fashion, making it a highly useful and ultimately reassuring listen for anyone worried about the impact that media might be having on young minds. Dr. Uhls ends each chapter with a summary of the science, a bottom line for quick takeaway, and tips and guidance for parents.