{"title":"Technology \u0026 Engineering--History","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"other-networks-a-radical-technology-sourcebook","title":"Other Networks: A Radical Technology Sourcebook","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eOther Networks\u003c\/i\u003e is writer and researcher Lori Emerson's index of telecommunications networks that existed before and outside of the internet.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe internet as we know it is not a foregone conclusion. Indeed, the present corporatized, monolithic, surveilled state of our networked communications is just one possibility out of many, and there is radical promise in uncovering hidden alternatives: from pirate radio to barbed wire telegraph, from synthesizers transmitted over the telephone to encoded messages bounced off the surface of the moon. \u003ci\u003eOther Networks\u003c\/i\u003e is writer and researcher Lori Emerson's speculative index of communications networks that existed before or outside of the internet: digital as well as analog, IRL as well as imagined, state-sponsored systems of control as well as homebrew communities in the footnotes of hacker culture. Featuring explanatory descriptions of each network, archival images, and original artwork and design by Robert Beatty, \u003ci\u003eOther Networks\u003c\/i\u003e documents historically alternative networks with a particular eye towards their experimental usage by artists and writers. 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It is the basis for a new approach to artificial intelligence that aims to program computers to use example data or past experience to solve a given problem. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Ethem Alpaydin offers a concise and accessible overview of \"the new AI.\" This expanded edition offers new material on such challenges facing machine learning as privacy, security, accountability, and bias. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Alpaydin explains that as Big Data has grown, the theory of machine learning--the foundation of efforts to process that data into knowledge--has also advanced. 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As a flight director in NASA's Mission Control, Kranz witnessed firsthand the making of history. He participated in the space program from the early days of the Mercury program to the last Apollo mission, and beyond. He endured the disastrous first years when rockets blew up and the United States seemed to fall further behind the Soviet Union in the space race. He helped to launch Alan Shepard and John Glenn, then assumed the flight director's role in the Gemini program, which he guided to fruition. With his teammates, he accepted the challenge to carry out President John F. Kennedy's commitment to land a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eKranz recounts these thrilling historic events and offers new information about the famous flights. What appeared as nearly flawless missions to the Moon were, in fact, a series of hair-raising near misses. 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As Markoff chronicles the history of automation, from the birth of the artificial intelligence and intelligence augmentation communities in the 1950s, to the modern day brain trusts at Google and Apple in Silicon Valley, and on to the expanding tech corridor between Boston and New York, he traces the different ways developers have addressed this fundamental problem and urges them to carefully consider the consequences of their work.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe are on the verge of a technological revolution, Markoff argues, and robots will profoundly transform the way our lives are organized. 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It's a staple of small talk, the app on our smartphones, and often the first thing we check each morning. Yet behind these quotidian interactions is one of the most expansive machines human beings have ever constructed--a triumph of science, technology and global cooperation. But what \u003cem\u003eis \u003c\/em\u003ethis 'weather machine' and who created it? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eThe Weather Machine\u003c\/em\u003e, Andrew Blum takes readers on a fascinating journey through an everyday miracle. In a quest to understand how the forecast works, he visits old weather stations and watches new satellites blast off. He follows the dogged efforts of scientists to create a supercomputer model of the atmosphere and traces the surprising history of the algorithms that power their work. He discovers that we have quietly entered a golden age of meteorology--our tools allow us to predict weather more accurately than ever, and yet we haven't learned to trust them, nor can we guarantee the fragile international alliances that allow our modern weather machine to exist.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWritten with the sharp wit and infectious curiosity Andrew Blum is known for, \u003cem\u003eThe Weather Machine\u003c\/em\u003e pulls back the curtain on a universal part of our everyday lives, illuminating our relationships with technology, the planet, and the global community. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 006236863X\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780062368638\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Blum, Andrew\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Ecco Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Ecco Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Jun 2020)","offer_id":45936856072389,"sku":"9780062368638","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780062368638.jpg?v=1772851013"},{"product_id":"nuts-and-bolts-seven-small-inventions-that-changed-the-world-in-a-big-way","title":"Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World in a Big Way","description":"\u003cp\u003eSome of humanity's mightiest engineering achievements are small in scale--and, without them, the complex machinery on which our modern world runs would not exist. In \u003cem\u003eNuts and Bolts\u003c\/em\u003e, structural engineer Roma Agrawal examines seven of these extraordinary elements: the nail, the wheel, the spring, the magnet, the lens, the string, and the pump.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTracing the evolution from Egyptian nails to modern skyscrapers, and Neanderthal string to musical instruments, Agrawal shows us how even our most sophisticated items are built on the foundations of these ancient and fundamental breakthroughs. 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From vivid stories of how the economic surplus of the Middle Ages was appropriated by an ecclesiastical elite to build cathedrals while the peasants starved, to the making of vast fortunes from digital technologies today as millions are pushed towards poverty, we see how the path of technology is determined and who influences its trajectory. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e To achieve the true potential of innovation, we need to ensure technology is creating new jobs and opportunities rather than marginalizing most people, through automated work and political passivity. 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That was the great battle for Butte, Montana, at the dawn of the 20th century when it was the richest hill on earth. Copper was the treasure, eagerly sought for wiring the modern world, and the hard rock below Butte was riddled with thick veins of the precious metal. Those who controlled the copper could make billions of dollars, the fortune sought by three men who fought for Butte's mineral wealth with greed and generosity, cruelty and compassion, cowardice and courage. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this astonishing battle, they used their fabulous wealth to buy courts, newspapers, politicians, banks, police, and anything and anyone that could help them and hinder their opponents. To get what they wanted, their money flowed like snowmelt through the mile-high city and eventually reached the nation's capital. All the while the miners toiled thousands of feet below ground in tunnels dug with blasting powder, picks, and shovels. 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It includes archival illustrations and diagrams of locations, personnel, and equipment, from aerial views of sandy, undeveloped Cape Canaveral to some of the first photos of the mobile launchers and crawler-transporters. Filled with the sense of wonder and pride that the earliest U.S. space achievements inspired, the book focuses on some of the most impressive buildings ever constructed, including launch complexes 39A and 39B, the gigantic assemblies from which the Apollo-Saturn vehicles departed for trips into space; the massive eight-acre Vertical Assembly Building (renamed the Vehicle Assembly Building); and the attached Launch Control Center. It also analyzes the technological and governmental interactions necessary to ensure success of the launches. Originally part of \u003ci\u003eMoonport\u003c\/i\u003e, one of the volumes of the NASA History Series, this volume is based on extensive interviews with participants in the space program and wide access to official documents, letters, and memoranda. 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It offers a simple roadmap for using AI audits to make product and policy changes that benefit companies and the public alike. The book aims to convince readers that AI systems should be subject to robust audits to protect all of us from the dangers of these systems. Readers will come away with an understanding of what an AI audit is, why AI audits are important, key components of an audit that follows best practices, how to interpret an audit, and the available choices to act on an audit's results. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe book is organized around canonical examples: from AI-powered drones mistakenly targeting civilians in conflict areas to false arrests triggered by facial recognition systems that misidentified people with dark skin tones to HR hiring software that prefers men. It explains these definitive cases of AI decision-making gone wrong and then highlights specific audits that have led to concrete changes in government policy and corporate practice. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Marquand House Collective: \u003c\/b\u003e Marc Aidinoff, Lena Armstrong, Esha Bhandari, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Motahhare Eslami, Karrie Karahalios, Nate Matias, Danaé Metaxa, Alondra Nelson, Christian Sandvig, and Kristen Vaccaro.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0262051729\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780262051729\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: The Marquand House Collective\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: MIT Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Apr 2026)","offer_id":46291783188677,"sku":"9780262051729","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780262051729.jpg?v=1780113079"},{"product_id":"city-on-the-edge-technology-politics-and-the-fight-for-the-soul-of-san-francisco","title":"City on the Edge: Technology, Politics, and the Fight for the Soul of San Francisco","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe definitive and \"captivating\" (\u003cb\u003eMarty Baron, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e author of \u003ci\u003eCollision of Power\u003c\/i\u003e) story of San Francisco's meteoric transformation into a global capital of technology, and how the same creative and political forces that gave rise to its boom nearly engineered its collapse.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAt the dawn of the 1990s, San Francisco was a beautiful if troubled mid-sized metropolis. 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But as the city's tech economy roared, a host of urban ills lurked in the shadows: homelessness, drug addiction, mental illness, and a crippling lack of new housing. The city's famous left-wing political establishment struggled to get its arms around the problems, becoming a punching bag for President Trump and the new right. When the pandemic arrived in 2020, it created new crises and laid old ones bare, shattering a \"City Family\" that had ruled politically for more than thirty years and prompting a sharp rightward turn by the once-liberal tech industry. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Jonathan Weber saw it all up close as a reporter and newsroom leader. He offers a sweeping history of a city that rose to dizzying heights, only to be undone by the heedlessness of a tech industry it did so much to spawn and politicians who had lost the plot. 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