{"product_id":"9780374104863","title":"Analogia : The Emergence of Technology Beyond Programmable Control","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eAnalogia\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): George Dyson\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNamed one of \u003ci\u003eWIRED\u003c\/i\u003e’s \"The Best Pop Culture That Got Us Through 2020\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eAnalogia\u003c\/i\u003e, technology historian George Dyson presents a startling look back at the analog age and life before the digital revolution—and an unsettling vision of what comes next.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1716, the philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz spent eight days taking the cure with Peter the Great at Bad Pyrmont in Saxony, trying to persuade the tsar to launch a voyage of discovery from Russia to America and to adopt digital computing as the foundation for a remaking of life on earth. In two classic books, \u003ci\u003eDarwin Among the Machines \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eTuring’s Cathedral\u003c\/i\u003e, George Dyson chronicled the realization of the second of Leibniz’s visions. In \u003ci\u003eAnalogia\u003c\/i\u003e, his pathbreaking new book, he brings the story full circle, starting with the Russian American expedition of 1741 and ending with the beyond-digital revolution that will complete\u003cbr\u003ethe transformation of the world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDyson enlists a startling cast of characters, from the time of Catherine the Great to the age of machine intelligence, and draws heavily on his own experiences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and onward to the rain forest of the Northwest Coast. We are, Dyson reveals, entering a new epoch in human history, one driven by a generation of machines whose powers are no longer under programmable control. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIncludes black-and-white illustrations\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Pleasingly eccentric [and] impossibly wide-ranging . . . Racing from the Stone Age to the coming singularity, Dyson is in fine fettle . . . [A] lively, if deeply strange, narrative . . . A thoughtful—and most thought-provoking—exploration of where our inventions have taken and will take us.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This is the most delightfully peculiar book I've ever read. It's grand and intimate, personal and cosmic, and about digital computing and archaic hunter gatherers. Every paragraph is a surprise.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Kevin Kelly, founding executive editor of \u003ci\u003eWired\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"An Odyssey of discovery...part autobiography, part science manual, part history book.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Izabella Kaminska, \u003ci\u003eThe Financial Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"George Dyson's \u003ci\u003eAnalogia\u003c\/i\u003e is a wonderful combination of the universal and the intimate, the timeless and the immediate, the scientific and the humane. A wise and open-minded writer sheds new light on our world.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—James Fallows, author of \u003ci\u003eNational Defense \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eOur Towns\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eAnalogia \u003c\/i\u003eis a work of originality and ambition unlike any you've encountered. George Dyson transmutes memoir, history, and forecast into a page-turning tale in which Geronimo, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Catherine the Great, Kurt Gödel, and Steller's sea cow play roles. It's no less the story of the magnificent Dysons, a larger-than-life family spanning physicist Freeman, mathematician Verena, tech influencer Esther, and the author himself, an off-the-grid public intellectual. Analogia offers more serious fun than a dozen of the usual bestsellers.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—William Poundstone, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Doomsday Calculation: How an Equation That Predicts the Future is Transforming Everything We Know About Life and the Universe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This strange, beautiful, haunting work is like a kaleidoscope of stories, its pattern locking into place at the end. Mixing the rise of computation, the brutal wars on the Apache, the construction of ancient kayaks, and a host of other matters with the author's own remarkable story, George Dyson's book will stick in readers' minds long after they close its covers. \u003ci\u003eAnalogia \u003c\/i\u003ebelongs on the shelf that holds Naipaul's \u003ci\u003eEnigma\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e of Arrival \u003c\/i\u003eand Sebald's \u003ci\u003eRings of Saturn\u003c\/i\u003e. And it can stand proudly in their exalted company.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Charles Mann, author of \u003ci\u003e1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"This book pierces through the fog of everyday life. Read and you will become aware of history you need to know, and of how the last few centuries of the human story sit within a much larger, epochal frame. An extra treat is insight into the remarkable Dyson family.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Jaron Lanier, author of \u003ci\u003eTen Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A thought-provoking deep dive into the ideas and stories behind some of the biggest issues of our time. One of Dyson’s best.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Greg Bear, author of\u003ci\u003e Darwin's Radio\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Only George Dyson could have written this book. Equal parts scholar, natural scientist, and adventurer, Dyson seamlessly blends science, history, philosophy, engineering, cultural commentary and memoir to give us a meditation on time and the relationship between mind and matter; people and machines; and what it all means for the future of humankind and the earth.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Deborah Tannen, professor of linguistics at Georgetown University and author of \u003ci\u003eYou Just Don't Understand, You're Wearing THAT?\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eFinding My Father\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"George Dyson, over the distance of a mere 250 pages, ties together the fine strands of time, space, science, and self, in a gossamer web as beautiful and strong as a spider’s. A wondrous and stellar work.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Andrei Codrescu, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Posthuman Dada Guide: Tzara and Lenin Play Chess\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLong-listed Financial Times Books of the Year (2020)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9780374104863\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Farrar, Straus and Giroux","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":40710597804238,"sku":"9780374104863","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_d88243ed-bdcb-4c11-9174-c93f23219a58.jpg?v=1640754942","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9780374104863","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}