At a time when Steve Jobs was only a teenager and Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t even born, a group of visionary engineers and designers—some of them only high school students—in the late 1960s and 1970s created a computer system called PLATO, which was light-years ahead in experimenting with how people would learn, engage, communicate, and play through connected computers. Not only did PLATO engineers make significant hardware breakthroughs with plasma displays and touch screens but PLATO program...

At a time when Steve Jobs was only a teenager and Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t even born, a group of visionary engineers and designers—some of them only high school students—in the late 1960s and 1970s created a computer system called PLATO, which was light-years ahead in experimenting with how people would learn, engage, communicate, and play through connected computers. Not only did PLATO engineers make significant hardware breakthroughs with plasma displays and touch screens but PLATO program...

From the ‘Wired’ and ‘New York Times Magazine’ contributor, a brilliant examination into how the internet is profoundly changing the way we think.In this groundbreaking book, Clive Thompson argues that the internet is boosting our brainpower, encouraging new ways of thinking, and making us more – not less – intelligent as is so often claimed.Our lives have been changed irrevocably by the rise of the internet. But as we rely more and more on machines to help us think, our th...

Stephen King has long been at the forefront of experimental publishing. As the world grows more digital each day, King has consistently remained on the edge of breakthrough trends and technology, finding new ways to publish and interpret his stories. King's digital journey has been strange and fascinating. Wetware is your guide.From the prehistory of King’s involvement with digital media such as The Dark Half video game and F13 to his online release of the lost work, The Cannibals,...

Entrepreneur and journalist Shane Snow (Wired, Fast Company, The New Yorker, and cofounder of Contently) analyzes the lives of people and companies that do incredible things in implausibly short time.How do some startups go from zero to billions in mere months? How did Alexander the Great, YouTube tycoon Michelle Phan, and Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon climb to the top in less time than it takes most of us to get a promotion? What do high-growth businesses, world-class heart surge...

Technology is rapidly moving into our bodies,” writes cyber expert Keenan, and this book gives a chilling look ahead into where that road may lead us on a one way trip to the total surrender of privacy and the commoditization of intimacy.” Here is the definitive dissection of privacy-eroding and life-invading technologies, coming at you from governments, corporations, and the person next door.Take, for example, Girls Around Me”: a Russian-made iPhone App that allowed anyone to...

"A broad and deep look at how electronic media are changing storytelling . . . . Completely fascinating." —Booklist, starred reviewNot long ago we were spectators, passive consumers of mass media. Now, on YouTube and blogs and Facebook and Twitter, we are media. No longer content in our traditional role as couch potatoes, we approach television shows, movies, even advertising as invitations to participate—as experiences to immerse ourselves in at will. Frank Rose ...

"A rollicking history of the telephone system and the hackers who exploited its flaws." — Kirkus Reviews, starred reviewBefore smartphones, back even before the Internet and personal computers, a misfit group of technophiles, blind teenagers, hippies, and outlaws figured out how to hack the world's largest machine: the telephone system. Starting with Alexander Graham Bell's revolutionary "harmonic telegraph," by the middle of the twentieth century the phon...

"A marvelous job of exploring first hand the implications of storing our entire lives digitally."-Guy L. Tribble, Apple, Inc.Tech luminary, Gordon Bell, and Jim Gemmell unveil a guide to the next digital revolution. Our daily life started becoming digital a decade ago. Now much of what we do is digitally recorded and accessible. This trend won't stop. And the benefits are astonishing.Based on their own research Bell and Gemmell explain the ever- incr...

“A thorough yet thoroughly digestible book on the ubiquity of data gathering and the unraveling of personal privacy.” —Daniel Pink, author of DriveThanks to recent advances in technology, prediction models for individual behavior grow more sophisticated by the day. Whether you’ll marry, commit a crime or fall victim to one, or contract a disease are becoming easily accessible facts. The naked future is upon us, and the implications are staggering.P...

Have you ever wished you could reprogram your brain, just as a hacker would a computer? In this 3-step guide packed with mind hacking techniques**, learn how to take charge of your mind and start** reprogramming thought patterns to banish negative thoughts, habits, and anxiety—in just a 21-day mental transformation**!**A seasoned author, comedian, and entrepreneur, Sir John Hargrave once struggled ...

**THE FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE MONTH**THE GRIPPING TALE OF THE EARLY FRONTIER DAYS OF SILICON VALLEY FROM ACCLAIMED HISTORIAN LESLIE BERLIN.'The book is compelling as it maps out the building of the Valley, the challenges its early tech pioneers faced, as well as highlighting those who reached dizzying success only to suffer as the dot com bubble burst**.' Financial Times**‘Kaleidoscopic, ambitious, and bri...