Greetings from Amazon.com Delivers Cyberculture Editor, Julian Dibbell FEATURED IN THIS E-MAIL: * Just off the Presses: Exploring speedy trends with James Gleick, demystifing digital technologies, and between black and white: fuzzy logic * What's Hot? Cyberculture bestsellers at press time * Recommended Reading: Neal Stephenson decodes "Cryptonomicon" * Almost Published: Books that are selling before they've even been printed * Featured Reviews: "Digital Capitalism: Networking the Global Market System" JUST OFF THE PRESSES ******************** "Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything" by James Gleick http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679408371/entertainmentsit Time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking into a future that seems to promise both less and more of it. Throughout this dwindling century, our culture's sense of pace has been speeding up relentlessly--we seem to fit more and more activity into the 1,440 minutes of the day, even as the minutes themselves seem to go by more quickly. In "Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything," Famed science journalist James Gleick takes a cracklingly insightful look at why this is so: the increasing precision of watches, the camera's growing power to manipulate time, and lately, the steady acceleration of the more and more ubiquitous microchip. Gleick weaves these and other factors into an argument that flows with a grace both swift and unhurried. "The Evolution of Wired Life" by Charles Jonscher http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471357596/entertainmentsit Here, for a change, is an impassioned and intelligent argument for the relative "insignificance" of digital technologies. Don't get the wrong idea, though: it's not that Charles Jonscher finds computers uninteresting. On the contrary, as a former programmer and current information- policy expert, he finds them fascinating, and the proof is "The Evolution of Wired Life: From the Alphabet to the Soul-Catcher Chip--How Information Technologies Change Our World"--one of the best introductions to the nature and history of the digital world ever written. But he's also out to disprove the notion that computers can have a greater effect on human society than the minds and actions of the humans who use them. And in this too he succeeds about as well as anyone who's yet made the attempt. "The Fuzzy Future: From Society and Science to Heaven in a Chip" by Bart Kosko http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0609604465/entertainmentsit Fuzzy logic--an upstart branch of logic dealing in shades of gray rather than the sharp ones and zeroes of binary thought--has made impressive inroads into software design, making itself useful in such stressful real-world situations as computer-aided automobiles, washing machines, and nuclear reactors. But is it ready to handle such problems as the abortion controversy, human mortality, and the ultimate nature of the universe? Bart Kosko, author of "The Fuzzy Future: From Society and Science to Heaven in a Chip," thinks so. Through its potential role in these and other weighty matters, he shows how the power of fuzz, linked to the power of computers, may soon take over the world. WHAT'S HOT? *********** At the top of this month's Cyberculture bestseller list are cyber e-business road rules, an exploration of cyberspace, and uncovering who really invented the computer. "Cyber Rules: Strategies for Excelling at E-Business" by Thomas M. Siebel and Pat House http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385494122/entertainmentsit "Cyber Rules: Strategies for Excelling at E-Business" offers exactly what its title promises: a series of deliberate considerations and well-reasoned actions designed to help even a technophobic newcomer tackle both the promises and the challenges of the virtual marketplace. Siebel Systems founder Thomas Siebel describes how time-tested business principles are still essential for success. "Dealers of Lightning: Xerox Parc and the Dawn of the Computer Age" by Michael A. Hiltzik http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0887308910/entertainmentsit "Dealers of Lightning: Xerox Parc and the Dawn of the Computer Age" tells of a time in the '70s and '80s when the Xerox Corporation provided unlimited funding to a renegade think tank called the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Occupying a ramshackle building adjacent to Stanford University, PARC's occupants would prove to be the greatest gathering of computer talent ever assembled: it conceptualized the very notion of the desktop computer, long before IBM launched its PC, and it laid the foundation for Microsoft Windows with a prototype graphical user interface of icons and layered screens. "ENIAC: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer" by Scott McCartney http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802713483/entertainmentsit Today's computers are fantastically complex machines, shaped by innovations dreamed up by hundreds of engineers and theorists over the last several decades. Does it even make sense, then, to ask who invented the computer? Scott McCartney thinks so, and in "ENIAC: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer," he's written a compelling answer to the question. Explore our top 50 computer titles, updated weekly: Computers & Internet RECOMMENDED READING: NEAL STEPHENSON DECODES "CRYPTONOMICON" ************************************************************ Neal Stephenson has been called "the Quentin Tarantino of postcyberpunk science fiction" by the "Village Voice." He took the SF world by storm with his novels "Snow Crash," "The Diamond Age," and "Zodiac." He's been compared to Thomas Pynchon and William Gibson, but Stephenson has a style all his own. His hip, literate novels are read religiously by SF fans and high-tech business types alike. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/external-search/?keyword=neal+stephenson&tag=entertainmentsit ALMOST PUBLISHED ***************** Cyberculture guides that have garnered the most pre-orders from Amazon.com customers--before they've even been published. "True Names: And the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier" by Vernor Vinge and James Frenkel Publication date: August 1999 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312862075/entertainmentsit "True Names: And the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier" is a study of "True Names," Vernor Vinge's critically acclaimed novella that introduced the concept of cyberspace. It includes the complete text of the novella, plus articles by Richard Stallman, John Markoff, Hans Moravec, Patricia Maes, Timothy May, and others. "The Psychology of the Internet" by Patricia M. Wallace Publication date: November 1999 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521632943/entertainmentsit "The Psychology of the Internet" is an exploration of the psychological aspects of cyberspace. Patricia Wallace writes, "It is an environment that we, as Internet users, can affect and mold--provided we have some inkling of how, and why, it can change our perceptions and behavior." Drawing on research in the social sciences, communications, business, and other fields, Wallace examines how the online environment influences us, for better or worse. FEATURED REVIEWS: "DIGITAL CAPITALISM" ************************************** "Digital Capitalism: Networking the Global Market System" by Dan Schiller http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262194171/entertainmentsit One of the great early claims of cyberculture was that the Net constituted a realm distinct from the "real world," with a life and laws all its own. This book argues strongly to the contrary. In "Digital Capitalism: Networking the Global Market System," Dan Schiller insists that cyberspace is not only an integral part of the real world: It exists primarily to serve powerful real-world economic interests--none of which are necessarily aligned with the principles of individual freedom and equal access commonly touted as the Internet's defining values. ****** You'll find more great books, articles, excerpts, and interviews in Amazon.com's Computers & Internet section at Computers & Internet
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