"In this illustrated volume, Steven Johnson explores the history of innovation over centuries, tracing facets of modern life (refrigeration, clocks, and eyeglass lenses, to name a few) from their creation by hobbyists, amateurs, and entrepreneurs to their unintended historical consequences. Filled with surprising stories of accidental genius and brilliant mistakes-- from the French publisher who invented the phonograph before Edison but forgot to...

Popular Mechanics helps the reader master the modern world, presenting trusted information about his home, his car, his technology and the world around him. With tool tests, building projects, car reviews and more, Popular Mechanics shows the American man how to upgrade his life. And the magazine's analysis of the latest developments in technology and engineering keeps him in the know about the science behind the news-from alternative energy

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Technology has become the architect of our intimacies. Online, we fall prey to the illusion of companionship, gathering thousands of Twitter and Facebook friends, and confusing tweets and wall posts with authentic communication. But this relentless connection leads to a deep solitude. MIT professor Sherry Turkle argues that as technology ramps up, our emotional lives ramp down. Based on hundreds of interviews and with a new introduction taking us...

"We are approaching a critical threshold in the history of our species. Everything is about to change. Soon you will live surrounded by AIs. They will organise your life, operate your business, and run core government services. You will live in a world of DNA printers and quantum computers, engineered pathogens and autonomous weapons, robot assistants and abundant energy. None of us are prepared. As co-founder of the pioneering AI company DeepMind,...

"The Candy House opens with the staggeringly brilliant Bix Bouton, whose company, Mandala, is so successful that he is "one of those tech demi-gods with whom we're all on a first name basis." Bix is 40, with four kids, restless, desperate for a new idea, when he stumbles into a conversation group, mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or "externalizing" memory. It's 2010. Within a decade, Bix's new technology, "Own...

The dramatic, larger-than-life true story behind the founding of Oculus and its quest for virtual reality, by the bestselling author of Console Wars. In 2012, nineteen-year-old Palmer Luckey -- inventor, gamer, dreamer -- lives alone in a trailer in Long Beach, California, that he has transformed into a makeshift laboratory optimized to build virtual reality headsets -- a technology most believed died in the nineties. Luckey, however, is adamant about...

"When Rosie Revere's Uncle Ned gets a little carried away wearing his famous helium pants, it's up to Ada and friends to chase him down. As Uncle Ned floats farther and farther away, Ada starts asking lots of questions: How high can a balloon float? Is it possible for Uncle Ned to float into outer space? And what's the best plan for getting him down?"--

When Max (Maxine Zealster) befriends her new robot classmate Fuzzy, she helps him navigate Vanguard Middle School and together they reveal the truth behind the Robot Integration Program.

Rosie Revere is no stranger to flops and fails, kerfuffles and catastrophes. After all, engineering is all about perseverance! But this time, Rosie has a really important project to tackle--one that feels much bigger than herself. Rosie's beloved Aunt Rose and her friends, the Raucous Riveters--a group of fun-loving gals who built airplanes during World War II--need help inventing something new. And Rosie is just the engineer for the job! After one...

The creator of the popular webcomic "xkcd" uses line drawings and just ten hundred common words to provide simple explanations for how things work, including microwaves, bridges, tectonic plates, the solar system, the periodic table, helicopters, and other essential concepts.