Close to the Machine (25th Anniversary Edition): Technophilia and Its Discontents, Paperback

This 25th Anniversary Edition of Close to the Machine, featuring a new introduction by Anna Wiener, author of Uncanny Valley, resurfaces Ellen Ullman's astonishing account of computing and the ways it shapes our very existence. A Salon Best Book of the Year In 1997, the computer was still a relatively new tool--a sleek and unforgiving machine that was beyond the grasp of most users. With intimate and unflinching detail, the software engineer Ellen Ullman examines the strange ecstasy of being at the forefront of the predominantly male technological revolution, and the difficulty of translating the inherent messiness of human life into artful and efficient code. Close to the Machine is an elegant and revelatory meditation on the dawn of the digital era. "There are no crazed hackers here; no zen-master software moguls; no media stereotypes; just a wonderfully written book about Ullman's days and nights at the heart of the new machine. I recommend it with unfettered enthusiasm."--San Francisco Chronicle

Ellen Ullman wrote her first computer program in 1978. She went on to have a twenty-year career as a programmer and software engineer. Her essays and books have become landmark works describing the social, emotional, and personal effects of technology. She is the author of the novels By Blood, a New York Times Notable Book; and The Bug, a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her memoir, Close to the Machine, about her life as a software engineer during the internet's first rise, became a cult classic. She is based in San Francisco.

• Dimensions: 210 x 139
• Author: Ellen Ullman
• Cover type: Paperback
• Publishing Year: 2022
• Publishing Month: 12
• Pages: 224
• Language: English
• Publisher: Picador USA
• Weight: 195 g