"You Are Not Expected to Understand This" by Torie Bosch
  Send as gift   Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account
Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks!

Nowโ€™s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one-credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโ€™ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Sign up today

"You Are Not Expected to Understand This"

How 26 Lines of Code Changed the World

$20.95

Get for $14.99 with membership
Length 5 hours 50 minutes
Language English
Narrators Emily Schwing & Mack Sanderson

This audiobook uses AI narration.

Weโ€™re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.

Learn more
  Send as gift   Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account

In this audiobook, Mack Sanderson and Emily Schwing reveal the stories behind the computer coding that touches all aspects of lifeโ€”for better or worse

Few of us give much thought to computer code or how it comes to be. The very word "code" makes it sound immutable or even inevitable. "You Are Not Expected to Understand This" demonstrates that, far from being preordained, computer code is the result of very human decisions, ones we all live with when we use social media, take photos, drive our cars, and engage in a host of other activities.

Everything from law enforcement to space exploration relies on code written by people who, at the time, made choices and assumptions that would have long-lasting, profound implications for society. Torie Bosch brings together many of today's leading technology experts to provide new perspectives on the code that shapes our lives. Contributors discuss a host of topics, such as how university databases were programmed long ago to accept only two genders, what the person who programmed the very first pop-up ad was thinking at the time, the first computer worm, the Bitcoin white paper, and perhaps the most famous seven words in Unix history: "You are not expected to understand this."

This compelling book tells the human stories behind programming, enabling those of us who don't think much about code to recognize its importance, and those who work with it every day to better understand the long-term effects of the decisions they make.

With an introduction by Ellen Ullman and contributions by Mahsa Alimardani, Elena Botella, Meredith Broussard, David Cassel, Arthur Daemmrich, Charles Duan, Quinn DuPont, Claire L. Evans, Hany Farid, James Grimmelmann, Katie Hafner, Susan C. Herring, Syeda Gulshan Ferdous Jana, Lowen Liu, John MacCormick, Brian McCullough, Charlton McIlwain, Lily Hay Newman, Margaret O'Mara, Will Oremus, Nick Partridge, Benjamin Pope, Joy Lisi Rankin, Afsaneh Rigot, Ellen R. Stofan, Lee Vinsel, Josephine Wolff, and Ethan Zuckerman.

Torie Bosch is editor of Future Tense, a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that explores the intersection of technology, policy, and society. She lives outside of Philadelphia. Kelly Chudler is a multidisciplinary artist and musician and the illustrator of Neuropedia (Princeton), Brain Bytes, and Worried? Mack Sanderson is a voice artist whose work spans commercials, promos, documentaries, PSAs, and audio tours for leading art museums in the United States and Canada. He is the narrator of many audiobooks, including James Bessen's The New Goliaths and Picasso's War by Hugh Eakin. Emily Schwing is an award-winning broadcast journalist who can be heard as a voice artist on the New Scientist audio edition. She is the narrator of Torie Bosch's "You Are Not Expected to Understand This" (Princeton) and Jacqueline Kennelly's Burnt by Democracy.

Torie Bosch is editor of Future Tense, a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that explores the intersection of technology, policy, and society. She lives outside of Philadelphia. Kelly Chudler is a multidisciplinary artist and musician and the illustrator of Neuropedia (Princeton), Brain Bytes, and Worried? Mack Sanderson is a voice artist whose work spans commercials, promos, documentaries, PSAs, and audio tours for leading art museums in the United States and Canada. He is the narrator of many audiobooks, including James Bessen's The New Goliaths and Picasso's War by Hugh Eakin. Emily Schwing is an award-winning broadcast journalist who can be heard as a voice artist on the New Scientist audio edition. She is the narrator of Torie Bosch's "You Are Not Expected to Understand This" (Princeton) and Jacqueline Kennelly's Burnt by Democracy.

Torie Bosch is editor of Future Tense, a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that explores the intersection of technology, policy, and society. She lives outside of Philadelphia. Kelly Chudler is a multidisciplinary artist and musician and the illustrator of Neuropedia (Princeton), Brain Bytes, and Worried? Mack Sanderson is a voice artist whose work spans commercials, promos, documentaries, PSAs, and audio tours for leading art museums in the United States and Canada. He is the narrator of many audiobooks, including James Bessen's The New Goliaths and Picasso's War by Hugh Eakin. Emily Schwing is an award-winning broadcast journalist who can be heard as a voice artist on the New Scientist audio edition. She is the narrator of Torie Bosch's "You Are Not Expected to Understand This" (Princeton) and Jacqueline Kennelly's Burnt by Democracy.

Featured in this playlist...

Audiobook details

Author:

ISBN:
9780691249933

Length:
5 hours 50 minutes

Language:
English

Publisher:
Princeton University Press

Publication date:

Edition:
Unabridged

Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks!

Nowโ€™s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one-credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโ€™ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Sign up today

Reviews

"[An] intriguingly human collection of articles . . . [from] contributors, including programmers, technologists, historians, journalists and academics."โ€”Andrew Robinson, Nature "A wonderful book. . . . The writing is clear, and you don't need to know anything about computers to understand pretty much every line of this book. A must-read!"โ€”Jonathan Shock, Mathemafrica "A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year" Expand reviews