03129cam a2200385 i 4500 23771352 US-DLC 20250928122931.0 m |o d | cr_||||||||||| 240628s2024 nyu ob 001 0 eng 2024014604 9780802158857 (ebook) 9780802158840 (hardcover) 23771352 DLC eng rda DLC DLC pcc Alfaisal Main Library QA76.6 .S61546 2025 Smith, Andrew, 1961- author. Devil in the stack : a code odyssey / Andrew Smith. First edition. 2025 New York : Atlantic Monthly Press, 2025. 442 pages text txt rdacontent Includes bibliographical references and index. "From internationally bestselling author and journalist Andrew Smith, an immersive, alarming, sharp-eyed journey into the bizarre world of computer code, told through his sometimes painful, often amusing attempt to become a coder himself. Throughout history, technological revolutions have been driven by the invention of machines. But today, the power of the technology transforming our world lies in an intangible and impenetrable cosmos of software: algorithmic code. So symbiotic has our relationship with this code become that we barely notice it anymore. We can't see it, are not even sure how to think about it, and yet we do almost nothing that doesn't depend on it. In a world increasingly governed by technologies that so few can comprehend, who-or what-controls the future? Devil in the Stack follows Andrew Smith on his immersive trip into the world of coding, passing through the stories of logic, machine-learning, and early computing, from Ada Lovelace to Alan Turing and up to the present moment, behind the scenes into the lives-and minds-of the new frontierspeople of the twenty-first century: those who write code. Smith embarks on a quest to understand this sect in what he believes to be the only way possible: by learning to code himself. Expansive and effervescent, Devil in the Stack delivers a portrait of code as both a vivid culture and an impending threat. How do we control a technology that most people can't understand? And are we programming ourselves out of existence? Perhaps most terrifying of all: Is there something about the way we compute-the way code works-that is innately at odds with the way humans have evolved? By turns revelatory, unsettling, and joyously funny, Devil in the Stack is an essential book for our times, of vital interest to anyone hoping to participate in the future-defining technological debates to come"-- Smith, Andrew, 1961- Computer programming Popular works. Human-computer interaction Popular works. Print books. local 4 Print version: Smith, Andrew, 1961- Devil in the stack First edition. New York : Atlantic Monthly Press, 2024. 9780802158840 (DLC) 2024014603 lcc BOOKS 604327 604327 0 0 lcc 0 0 AU AU GEN 2025-09-28 0 QA76.6 .S61546 2025 AU00000000020631 2025-09-28 12:30:57 135.00 2025-09-28 BOOKS