Philosopher of Palo Alto - Mark Weiser, Xerox Parc, and the Original Internet of Things

"As a pioneer of ubiquitous computing-the embedding of technology in everyday objects from thermostats to doorbells-computer scientist Mark Weiser's descriptions of smart homes, now thirty years later, might seem to approach our reality. Weiser's views certainly influenced our technology's developers-his 1991 Scientific American article 'The Computer for the 21st Century' was flagged a must-read by Microsoft's Bill Gates and then circulated among the day's digirati, including those Silicon Valley insiders who crowded his beer garden-based 'office hours.' Unlike many of his contemporaries, Weiser's vision was motivated by the philosophies of Michael Polanyi and Martin Heidegger, collaboration with anthropologists such as Lucy Suchman, and insights from artists including Natalie Jeremijenko. He hoped to realize 'tacit computing' as an escape from a single attention-grabbing screen as a portal to work, entertainment, and education. When rivals such as Nicholas Negroponte at MIT's Media Lab championed the development of smart agents (the ancestors of Siri and Alexa) or pervasive sensing in wearable technologies (proto-Fitbits or Apple Watches), Weiser balked. Weiser wanted computers to be something closer to the white cane a person with low vision might use to navigate the world. Good technology, he argued, should not mine our experiences for data to sell or demand our attention. Technology should not rob its users of the hardships that establish their expertise, but instead give them the ability to conceive of the world in new ways. In this compelling biography of a person and idea, digital studies scholar John Tinnell shows Weiser, who died of cancer at 46, would be heartbroken if he had lived to see the ways we use technology today. Informed by deep archival research and interviews with Weiser's family and Xerox PARC colleagues, this book uses Weiser's life to offer a new history of today's technological reality, an inside view of Xerox PARC during its heyday, and a compelling vision of what computers failed to be"--

About the author

John Tinnell is director of digital studies and associate professor of English at the University of Colorado Denver. He is the author of Actionable Media: Digital Communication Beyond the Desktop, and he has written for the Los Angeles Times and Boston Review.

Product details

• Authors: John Tinnell
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 18.05.2023
• EAN: 9780226757209
• ISBN: 978-0-226-75720-9
• No. of pages: 368
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Labour, economic and industrial sociology; COMPUTERS / Internet / General, SCIENCE / Philosophy & Social Aspects, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Science & Technology, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / History, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Social Aspects, computer hardware, History of engineering and technology, Internet: general works, Impact of science & technology on society, History of engineering & technology, Impact of science and technology on society, Biography: science, technology & medicine, Biography: science, technology and medicine, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Technology Studies, COMPUTERS / Internet of Things (IoT), Interrelated smart technologies