The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “software”

Darwin Among the Machines: A Victorian Visionary’s Prophetic Admonition for Saving Ourselves from Enslavement by Artificial Intelligence
Darwin Among the Machines: A Victorian Visionary’s Prophetic Admonition for Saving Ourselves from Enslavement by Artificial Intelligence

“We are ourselves creating our own successors… We are daily giving them… that self-regulating, self-acting power which will be to them what intellect has been to the human race. In the course of ages we shall find ourselves the inferior race.”

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The Birth of the Information Age: How Paul Otlet’s Vision for Cataloging and Connecting Humanity Shaped Our World
The Birth of the Information Age: How Paul Otlet’s Vision for Cataloging and Connecting Humanity Shaped Our World

“Everyone from his armchair will be able to contemplate creation, in whole or in certain parts.”

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Close to the Machine: Code and the Mesmerism of Building a World from Scratch
Close to the Machine: Code and the Mesmerism of Building a World from Scratch

“…the programmer has no choice but to retreat into some private interior space, closer to the machine…”

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People-Dependent Technology: Designing with Our Highest Ideals for One Another
People-Dependent Technology: Designing with Our Highest Ideals for One Another

“…design everything on the assumption that people are not heartless or stupid but marvellously capable, given the chance.”

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The Dawn of the Microprocessor and the Birth of Venture Capital
The Dawn of the Microprocessor and the Birth of Venture Capital

“Announcing a new era of integrated electronics.”

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Loneliness and the Trinity of Creativity: Ada Lovelace, the Poles of the Mind, and the Source of Her Imaginative Powers
Loneliness and the Trinity of Creativity: Ada Lovelace, the Poles of the Mind, and the Source of Her Imaginative Powers

“Those who have learned to walk on the threshold of the unknown worlds… may then with the fair white wings of Imagination hope to soar further into the unexplored amidst which we live.”

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Steven Johnson on the “Peer Progressive” Movement and What the Internet Wants
Steven Johnson on the “Peer Progressive” Movement and What the Internet Wants

“When you give people more control over the flow of information and decision making in their communities, their social health improves — incrementally, in fits and starts, but also inexorably.”

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Alan Turing: Church, State, and the Tragedy of Gender-Defiant Genius
Alan Turing: Church, State, and the Tragedy of Gender-Defiant Genius

On the man who was caught between the past and the future in clothes a size too small, and profoundly changed our lives anyway.

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Everything is a Remix Part 4: System Failure
Everything is a Remix Part 4: System Failure

A brief history of intellectual property, or why 1790 was more culturally progressive than 2012.

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The 11 Best Biographies and Memoirs of 2011
The 11 Best Biographies and Memoirs of 2011

Illustrated correspondence, rock’n’roll, and what an old Kurt Vonnegut has to do with a young Hemingway.

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