Justin E. H Smith
Author
Publisher
Princeton University Press
Pub. Date
[2022]
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
A history of the Internet, uncovering its origins in nature and centuries-old dreams of improving the quality of human life by creating thinking machines and allowing for communication across vast distances. Looks at what the Internet is, where it came from, and where it might be taking us.
Author
Publisher
Princeton University Press
Pub. Date
[2019]
Language
English
Description
It's a story we can't stop telling ourselves. Once, humans were benighted by superstition and irrationality, but then the Greeks invented reason. Later, the Enlightenment enshrined rationality as the supreme value. Discovering that reason is the defining feature of our species, we named ourselves the "rational animal." But is this flattering story itself rational? In this sweeping account of irrationality from antiquity to today--from the fifth-century...