Greetings from Amazon.com Delivers Cyberculture Editor, Julian Dibbell FEATURED IN THIS E-MAIL: * Just off the Presses: Net toll and drudgery, tackling technoromantic theory, cryptological history mysteries * What's Hot? Cyberculture bestsellers at press time * Recommended Reading: Tim Berners-Lee enquires within upon everything * Almost Published: Books that are selling before they've even been printed * Featured Interview: David Shenk JUST OFF THE PRESSES ******************** "NetSlaves: True Tales of Working the Web" by Bill Lessard and Steve Baldwin http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0071352430/entertainmentsit If you've had your fill of the breathless hero worship that passes for Internet business writing in much of the press these days, this book's for you. No brilliant visionaries inhabit these pages; no billionaire boy wonders. Just the stressed-out, undercompensated wretches who make up the Web industry's vast majority--the programmers, help-deskers, project managers, chat-room censors, and other unsung zeroes who bear the brunt of the Net biz's crazed deadlines, dysfunctional management, and surreal financial practices. Their stories are by turns pathetic, hair-raising, and hilarious, but most of all they are a much-needed cure for the widespread delusion that the Web business is a game without losers. "Technoromanticism: Digital Narrative, Holism, and the Romance of the Real" By Richard Coyne http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262032600/entertainmentsit Challengingly dense but consistently illuminating, this theory-heavy take on the meanings of digital technology aims a high-caliber academic barrage at the romantic notions that permeate cyberculture. From hopeful dreams of virtual communities to wishful predictions of perfect simulations of reality, Richard Coyne scours today's utopian thinking about the digital and finds everywhere traces of 19th-century romanticism's longing for transcendence. Bent on freeing us from what he considers an outdated belief system, Coyne throws the full weight of 20th-century critical theory at technoromanticism, battering away at its philosophical underpinnings with the tools of deconstruction, phenomenology, and poststructuralist psychoanalysis. Not for the intellectually timid, obviously, but recommended for budding cybertheorists everywhere. "The Code Book: The Evolution of Secrecy from Mary, Queen of Scots to Quantum Cryptography" By Simon Singh http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385495315/entertainmentsit In his bestselling "Fermat's Enigma," Simon Singh brought a breathtaking clarity to the tale of history's greatest mathematical mystery, the centuries-long attempt to solve Fermat's Last Theorem. Now he's done the same for the age-old mysteries of cryptology--the making and breaking of secret codes and ciphers. Singh does an impeccable job of explaining the broad importance of cryptology in the digital age--a time when everyone's privacy increasingly depends on the power of electronic data-scrambling schemes--but the real thrill here lies in secret writing's long, colorful history as a tool of diplomats and spies and a plaything of eccentric scholars. Singh recounts it all with elegance, verve, and a knack for making the knottiest cryptological complexities seem dazzlingly simple. WHAT'S HOT? *********** At the top of this month's Cyberculture bestseller list are a survey of thinking machines, a posthuman analysis, and a fictional tale of cyber-intrigue. "When Things Start to Think" by Neil A. Gershenfeld http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805058745/entertainmentsit A computer in your shoe? Maybe so. Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT's Media Lab, joins the ranks of techno-prognosticators with "When Things Start to Think," and his focus is on how the future of computing will fit into our physical realities. This sensorial focus allows Gershenfeld to explore such science fictional ideas as wearable computers and nanotech circuitry implants, as well as such concerns as emotions, money, and civil rights in the new age of artificial intelligence. "How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics" by N. Katherine Hayles http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226321460/entertainmentsit The title of this scholarly yet remarkably accessible slice of contemporary cultural history has a whiff of paradox about it: what can it mean, exactly, to say that we humans have become something other than human? The answer, Katherine Hayles explains in "How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics," lies not in ourselves but in our tools. Ever since the invention of electronic computers five decades ago, these powerful new machines have inspired a shift in how we define ourselves both as individuals and as a species. "The Predictors" by Thomas A. Bass http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805057560/entertainmentsit Using a computer to beat Wall Street from afar is, arguably, the new American dream. While it will remain just that for most of us, an offbeat gang of academics turned financial wizards is showing it can be done. In "The Predictors," Thomas A. Bass colorfully relates their tale of fiscal triumph--and reveals in the process how even an unorthodox group of antibusiness intellectuals in far-off New Mexico can make the world's biggest institutions sit up and take notice. Explore our top 50 computer titles, updated weekly: The Computer Top 50 RECOMMENDED READING: ENQUIRE WITHIN UPON EVERYTHING *************************************************** Although there are hundreds--perhaps thousands--of books about the World Wide Web, it's surprising one hasn't been written by the man who created it--until now. In "Weaving the Web," Tim Berners-Lee tells how he invented the Web and ponders its direction. Amazon.com recently had the opportunity to talk to Berners-Lee (by e-mail, of course) about his book and his invention. Computers & Internet ALMOST PUBLISHED **************** Cyberculture guides that have garnered the most pre-orders from Amazon.com customers--before they've even been published. "Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace" by Lawrence Lessig Publication date: December 1999 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/046503912X/entertainmentsit Lawrence Lessig, a professor at Harvard Law School and a fellow of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, explores cyberspace--from intellectual property and free speech to privacy in "Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace." Here, Lessig warns that, if we're not careful, we'll wake up one day to discover that the character of cyberspace has changed out from under us. Lessig shows how code can make a domain, site, or network free or restrictive; how architectures influence people's behavior and the values they adopt; and how changes in code affect the pressing issues of free speech, intellectual property, and privacy in cyberspace. "True Names and the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier" by Vernor Vinge and James Frenkel Publication date: December 1999 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312862075/entertainmentsit In 1981, three years before publication of William Gibson's "Neuromancer," Vernor Vinge's novella "True Names" invented the concept of cyberspace. This book explores the blossoming discoveries and groundbreaking applications, both current and future, on the new frontier of the Internet and all its subsets. Vernor Vinge is a computer science professor at San Diego State University who is known for writing science fiction that combines an insightful grasp of technology with some of the most fantastic scenarios ever imagined. FEATURED INTERVIEW: DAVID SHENK ******************************* What have we given up in exchange for the free-flowing information revolution? Taking a broad view of our accelerating rate of change--wearing neither rose-colored glasses nor too-dark shades--David Shenk continues where "Data Smog" left off in his new book of essays, "The End of Patience." Amazon.com contributor Rob Lightner wasted no time in the interview process, though, "talking" with Shenk via a high-speed DSL Internet connection. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=entertainmentsit&path=tg/feature/-/2626 ****** You'll find more great books, articles, excerpts, and interviews in Amazon.com's Computers & Internet section at Computers & Internet ******
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