Best summer books of 2023: Technology
Power and Progress: Our Thousand Year Struggle over Technology and Prosperity by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson (Basic Books/PublicAffairs)
Listen to the technorati of Silicon Valley and you would believe the future is already written in computer code, if not the stars. In this sweeping and compelling book, two MIT professors reject any notion of technological determinism and explore how countries can shape technology to create more humane societies.
The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology by Nita A Farahany (St Martin’s Press)
Recent advances in neurotechnology are bringing much-needed relief to stroke victims and epileptics. But the increasing ability to track and hack our brains also opens up sinister possibilities for malign militaries, companies and governments. Farahany argues for the safeguards we need to preserve our privacy and freedom of thought.
The Everything Blueprint: The Microchip Design That Changed the World by James Ashton (Hodder & Stoughton)
More than 1tn microchips are sold every year, operating everything from smartphones and nuclear missiles to toothbrushes and toys. An astonishing number of them run on designs from the highly successful and little celebrated British company: Arm. In this sparkly corporate biography, Ashton recounts its origins and remarkable global influence.
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More Than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech by Meredith Broussard (MIT Press)
Technology often discriminates against marginalised communities because society does, writes this leading researcher into algorithmic bias and New York University associate professor. But Broussard argues a potential reboot is possible and that public interest technology can be used to promote a more just society.
Quantum Supremacy: How Quantum Computers Will Unlock the Mysteries of Science — and Address Humanity’s Biggest Challenges by Michio Kaku (Allen Lane)
Although Kaku is overexcitable about the potential impact of quantum computers given their severe limitations today, his book nonetheless helps explain the science behind the technology. If you want to understand all the quantum theory behind Schrodinger’s cat, superpositions, entanglement and parallel universes, then this is a good place to start.
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