Virtual Unreality - The New Era of Digital Deception

Zusatztext Praise for Virtual Unreality   “Mr. Seife (a professor of journalism at New York University and the author of five books on science and math) . . . is a meticulous writer! and he quickly won me over—unfortunately. . . . [H]is portrait is persuasive and thus disconcerting and frightening.” —Howard Schneider! The Wall Street Journal   “ Virtual Unreality is a talisman we gullible can wield in the hope that we won’t get fooled again.” —Dwight Garner! The New York Times “Intense and incisive! Seife’s exposé of potent tricks on the mesmerizing! overpowering Internet makes us very wary about anything that cannot be verified with our own eyes.” — Publishers Weekly “An ingenious overview of a wildly unreliable Internet.” — Kirkus (starred review) “A cogent! balanced! quietly impassioned call for Internet skepticism.” — Nature “Seife proves meticulous in amassing much of what we know about the perils of the Internet and explaining its significance for anyone trying to separate truth from falsehood . . . informed! nimble! endlessly quotable! and timely . . . an indispensable guide to almost everything sinister about the Internet.” — Christian Science Monitor Praise for Sun in a Bottle   “A model of what scientific history should be.” — The Washington Times  Praise for Alpha and Omega   “Dispatches from science’s front lines . . . spiced with fresh discoveries and dsiputes.” — Los Angeles Times   Praise for Zero   “Written with clarity and infectious enthusiasm that are rare in science writing! and practically unknown among those who dare to explain mathematics. Zero is really something.” — The Washington Post   Praise for Decoding the Universe   “For the former liberal arts major and other right-brainers! Seife is the man.” — Salon.com — Charles Seife Informationen zum Autor Charles Seife Klappentext The author of Zero and Proofiness explains how to tell truth from fantasy in the digital world, and why it matters Today, the Internet allows us to spread information faster and to more people than ever before—never mind whether it's true or not. In Virtual Unreality, mathematician, science reporter, and journalist watchdog Charles Seife takes us deep into the information jungle and cuts a path through the trickery, fakery, and cyber skullduggery that the Internet enables. Providing a much-needed toolkit to help separate fact from fiction, Seife, with his trademark wit and skepticism, addresses the problems that face us every time we turn on our computers and Google our most recent medical symptoms, read a politician's tweet, fact-check something on Wikipedia, or start an online relationship. Let the clicker beware. INTRODUCTION: The new environment shaped by electric technology is a cannibalistic one that eats people. To survive one must study the habits of cannibals. —MARSHALL MCLUHAN On October 5, 2001, the world learned what evil can lurk in the heart of a Muppet. He was first spotted in Bangladesh, in Dhaka, at an anti-American rally. He was in the background, almost hidden from view, but there was no question: it was his unmistakable visage, jaundiced and unibrowed, glowering angrily over the right shoulder of enemy number one. The next sighting was in Djakarta, Indonesia. Again, he was hard to pick out at first—cameramen from Reuters and the Associated Press didn’t even notice him in their photographs for a few days—but there he was, directly behind the figure of Osama bin Laden. It was Bert, pointy-headed resident of Sesame Street, roommate of Ernie, pigeon fancier—and apparently rig...

Product details

• Authors: Charles Seife
• Publisher: Penguin Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 04.08.2015
• EAN: 9780143127673
• ISBN: 978-0-14-312767-3
• No. of pages: 256
• Dimensions: 133 mm x 202 mm x 15 mm
• Subject: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > IT, data processing