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Material Type: | Biography, Internet resource |
---|---|
Document Type: | Book, Internet Resource |
All Authors / Contributors: |
Ted Friedman |
ISBN: | 0814727395 0814727409 9780814727393 9780814727409 |
OCLC Number: | 191692858 |
Description: | x, 275 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
Contents: | Introduction : the dialectic of technological determinism -- Part I. Mainframe culture. Charles Babbage and the politics of computer memory -- Ideologies of information processing : from analog to digital -- Filming the "electronic brain" -- Part II. The personal computer. The many creators of the personal computer -- Apple's 1984 -- The rise of the simulation game -- Part III. The interpersonal computer. Imagining cyberspace -- Dot-com politics -- Beyond Napster -- Linux and utopia -- Conclusion : cybertopia today. |
Responsibility: | Ted Friedman. |
More information: |
Reviews
Publisher Synopsis
Electric Dreams is at once a synthetic history of the personal computer, a history of representations of the computer, and a treatise on how to think about computing as a cultural phenomenon. Friedmans original analyses and clear style make the book a pleasure to read. -- Jonathan Sterne,author of The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction This engaging but ultimately unsatisfying book examines the utopian sphere - a public forum in which alternative futures can be imagined and debated - that arose in response to computing innovations, ranging from Charles Babbages Difference Engine to web logs -- Kenneth Lipartito,Florida International University [T]he general reader will thank Mr. Friedman. * Studies in American Culture * Electric Dreams is a very solid cultural studies offering, smoothly written and largely steering clear of heavy-duty theory, making it an almost ideal candidate for undergraduate courses and as an introduction for newcomers to the field. * Science Fiction Reader * This book is for anyone who owns or uses a computer. . . . Computers permeate our culture, but we have little idea of where they came from and why we use them the way we do. Electric Dreams offers a mirror to our own hopes, desires, and fears, and empowers us as a community to use technology for our own benefit. * M/C Reviews * Read more...

