Summer reading
I'm looking for some books to read. Last summer I was lucky enough to read (or re-read):
What the Dormouse Said (Markoff)
Dark Hero of the Information Age (Conway/Siegelman)
The Dream Machine (Waldrop)
I recommend all three of these very warmly. Right now I've got a bunch of books about (or having to do with) Darwin waiting to be read. But if, in addition, there were more like these three I'd be delighted.
Going back through the July 1945 Vannevar Bush “As We May Think” essay today, I was struck by how primitive most peoples' online experiences still are. It's an obvious thought, but we still don't have the “associational trails” that Bush dreamed of. You have probably heard of Bush's interest in a “memex,” which he described as an “enlarged intimate supplement to [man's] memory.” But the trails may be new to you:
The process of tying two items together is the important thing.
When the user is building a trail, he names it, inserts the name in his code book, and taps it out on his keyboard. Before him are the two items to be joined, projected onto adjacent viewing positions. . . . Thereafter, at any time, when one of these items is in view, the other can be instantly recalled merely by tapping a button below the corresponding code space. Moreover, when numerous items have been thus joined together to form a trail, they can be reviewed in turn, rapidly or slowly. . .
First [the user] runs through an encyclopedia, finds an interesting but sketchy article, leaves it projected. Next, in a history, he finds another pertinent item, and ties the two together. Thus he goes, building a trail of many items. Occasionally he inserts a comment of his own, either linking it into the main trail or joining it by a side trail to a particular item. . . Thus he builds a trail of his interest through the maze of materials available to him.
And his trails do not fade. . . Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified.
Now, wikipedia is like a trail. But because there is only one link type (this links to that), you can't see how someone else (much less thousands of someone elses) has weaved his/her way through a particular subject. In a sense, we're still scrambling around in a pool of knowledge. It's a deep and interesting pool, but each one of us has to find his/her way out — very few trails out there.
Virtual worlds can make these persistent, visual trails possible. And if we all (everyone) had enough bandwidth….
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8 Responses to “Summer reading”
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I enjoyed Markoff's book for getting yet another perspective on some of the same events I had already read about in:
Michael A. Hiltzik, _Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age_
and
Steven Levy, _Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything_
I also recommend
James B. Murray, Jr., _Wireless Nation: The Frenzied Launch of the Cellular Revolution in America_
Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon, _Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet_ (Markoff's ex-wife)
anything else by Steven Levy (_Hackers_, _Crypto_, _The Unicorn's Secret_, etc.)
Po Bronson, _The Nudist on the Late Shift_ (stories from the dot com boom)
and, having nothing to do with computers but quite entertaining,
Paul Krassner, _Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut_ (autobiography of the editor of The Realist)
Not that you asked, but if you're reading some books on/related to Darwin, I heartily recommend Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Dan Dennett. Great book. (In fact, I'll bet it's already part of that bunch)
Hi Susan,
In The Meme Machine, Susan Blackmore did a great job explaining meme theory. Recommended by Richard Dawkins:
Hi, Mischa — yes, it's actually on the top of my list! And Darwin Among the Machines, by George Dyson.
Britt — That's a great suggestion. Here's one for you (one of my favorites ever): The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down To Size, by Tor Norretranders.
Hi Jim –
I've read The Nudist on the Late Shift (and loved it), and I'm really grateful for the other suggestions. I'm embarrassed that I haven't read Where Wizards — I've been hearing about it for a long time. Great collection. Susan
I second the Dennett recommendation. Along the similar lines, on my wish list for planned future reading are Robert M. Hazen's _Gen-e-sis: The Scientific Quest for Life's Origins_, Chris Turney's _Bones, Rocks, and Stars: The Science of When Things Happened_, Carl Zimmer's _Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea_, and Sean B. Carroll's _Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo-Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom_.
Have you read Ambient Findability by Peter Morvillle? It does a great job on covering the topic on searching and finding what we are lokking for.
Everyware by Adam Greenfield is on my reading list too