Close to the Machine

Technophilia and Its Discontents (25th Anniversary Edition)

By: Ellen Ullman

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Paperback | 6 December 2022

At a Glance

Paperback
224 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
20.32 x 13.34 x 1.91

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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

Industry Reviews

"Astonishing...Impossible to put down." --San Francisco Chronicle

"Close to the Machine may be the best---it's certainly the most human---book to have emerged thus far from the culture of Silicon Valley. Ullman is that rarity, a computer programmer with a poet's feeling for language." --Laura Miller, Salon

"Part memoir, part techie mantra, part observation on the ever-changing world of computer science...[Ullman is] a strong woman standing up to, and facing down, 'obsolescence' in two different, particularly unforgiving worlds---modern technology and modern society." --The New York Times Book Review

"Fascinating...Chock-full of delicately profound insights into work, money, love, and the search for a life that matters." --Newsweek

"Ullman comes with her tech bona fides intact (she is, after all, a seasoned software engineer). But she also comes with novel material....We see the seduction at the heart of programming: embedded in the hijinks and hieroglyphics are the esoteric mysteries of the human mind." --Wired

"This book is a little masterpiece....I have never read anything like it." --Andrei Codrescu

"For someone sitting so close to the machine, Ellen Ullman possesses a remarkably wide-angle perspective on the technology culture she inhabits." --The Village Voice

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