Machine Beauty - Elegance and the Heart of Technology

In Machine Beauty, David Gelernter takes us on a rollicking tour of the aesthetics of computers, from the mind-numbing uniformity of computer housings to the backward, pencil-and-paper mentality behind popular computer programs. Gelernter lays out the thinking behind Lifestreams -- his own radical alternative to desktop-model computers -- and makes a technical subject vastly accessible and very funny. Appraising our proven capacity for beautiful technology in the past, Machine Beauty holds out hope that we can rise to the challenge in the future.

List of contents

* Deep Beauty * The Paradox of Beauty * The Aesthetics of Computer Science * Rise of the Desktop * Beyond the Desktop * Computer Ugliness * Unseen Beauty

About the author

David Gelernter is a professor of computer science at Yale University. His books include The Muse in the Machine, Mirror Worlds, and 1939. His ideas on computers and technology nearly cost him his life when he was letterbombed by the Unabomber.

Product details

• Authors: Gelernter, David Gelernter, David Hillel Gelernter
• Publisher: Perseus Books Uk
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 21.12.1998
• EAN: 9780465043163
• ISBN: 978-0-465-04316-3
• No. of pages: 166
• Dimensions: 127 mm x 197 mm x 13 mm
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > IT, data processing > IT; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works