You are not expected to understand this : how 26 lines of code changed the world / edited by Torie Bosch ; with an introduction by Ellen Ullman ; with Illustrations by Kelly Chudler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bosch, Torie.

Contributor:

Bosch, Torie, (editor).

Chudler, Kelly, (illustrator).

Ullman, Ellen, (writer of introduction).

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Computer programming--Popular works.

Computer programming.

Computer science--Social aspects--Popular works.

Computer science.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2022]

Summary:

"Everything from law enforcement to space exploration relies on code written by people who, at the time, made choices and assumptions that would have long-lasting, profound implications for society. Torie Bosch brings together many of today’s leading technology experts to provide new perspectives on the code that shapes our lives. Contributors discuss a host of topics, such as how university databases were programmed long ago to accept only two genders, what the person who programmed the very first pop-up ad was thinking at the time, the first computer worm, the Bitcoin white paper, and perhaps the most famous seven words in Unix history: “You are not expected to understand this.” This compelling book tells the human stories behind programming, enabling those of us who don’t think much about code to recognize its importance, and those who work with it every day to better understand the long-term effects of the decisions they make. With an introduction by Ellen Ullman and contributions by Mahsa Alimardani, Elena Botella, Meredith Broussard, David Cassel, Arthur Daemmrich, Charles Duan, Quinn DuPont, Claire L. Evans, Hany Farid, James Grimmelmann, Katie Hafner, Susan C. Herring, Syeda Gulshan Ferdous Jana, Lowen Liu, John MacCormick, Brian McCullough, Charlton McIlwain, Lily Hay Newman, Margaret O’Mara, Will Oremus, Nick Partridge, Benjamin Pope, Joy Lisi Rankin, Afsaneh Rigot, Ellen R. Stofan, Lee Vinsel, Josephine Wolff, and Ethan Zuckerman." -- Publisher's description.

Contents:

The first line of code / Elena Botella ; Monte Carlo algorithms: random numbers in computing from the H-Bomb to today / Benjamin Pope ; Jean Sammet and the code that runs the world / Claire L. Evans ; Spacewar: collaborative coding and the rise of gaming culture / Arthur Daemmrich ; BASIC and the illusion of coding empowerment / Joy Lisi Rankin ; The first email: the code that connected us online / Margaret O’Mara ; The Police beat algorithm: the code that launched computational policing and modern racial profiling / Charlton McIlwain ; “Apollo 11, Do Bailout” / Ellen R. Stofan and Nick Patridge ; The most famous comment in Unix history: “You are not expected to understand this” / Davis Cassel ; The accidental felon / Katie Hafner ; Internet relay chat: from fish-slap to LOL / Susan C. Herring ; Hyperlink: the idea that led to another, and another, and another / Brian McCullough ; JPEG: the unsung hero in the digital revolution / Hany Farid ; The viral internet image you’ve never seen / Lily Hay Newman ; The pop-up ad: the code that made the internet worse / Ethan Zuckerman ; Wear this code, go to jail / James Grimmelmann ; Needles in the world’d biggest haystack: the algorithm that ranked the internet / John MacCormick ; A failure to interoperate: the lost Mars climate oribiter / Charles Duan ; The code that launched a million cat videos / Lowen Liu / Nakamoto’s prophecy: Bitcoin and the revolution in trust /Quinn DuPont ; The churse of the awesome button / Will Oremus ; The bug no one was responsible for-until everyone was / Josephine Wolff ; The Volkswagen wmissions scandal: how digital systems can be used to cheat / Lee Vinsel ; The code that brought a language online / Syeda Gulshan Ferdous Jana ; Telegram: the platform that became “the Internet” in Iran / Mahsa Alimardani and Afsaneh Rigot ; Encoding gender / Meredith Broussard.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-691-23081-1

OCLC:

1345590841