Books

Seems we are all reminiscing. Went to the Tate Modern recently and, embarrassingly, emerged from the gift shop with the following: “Digital Retro: The Evolution and Design of the Personal Computer” (Gordon Laing) I remember lusting after practically every machine in here. Sad geek that I am- I particularly lusted after the Jupiter Ace because it came with FORTH as the built-in language. I must have read some article about FORTH, because I was obsessed with it and eventually used in on my Commodore 64....

I am astonished at the current “anti-expertise” zeitgeist that seems to have taken hold of the US and UK. Recently Neil Stephenson summed up the prevailing mood in the February issue of Reason Online: “It has been the case for quite a while that the cultural left distrusted geeks and their works; the depiction of technical sorts in popular culture has been overwhelmingly negative for at least a generation now. More recently, the cultural right has apparently decided that it doesn’t care for some of what scientists have to say....

A book about memes that is in itself a meme. Devious. Now my brain hurts. “The Meme Machine” (Susan Blackmore)

One of those books that I wasn’t too impressed with when I was reading it, but now I keep thinking about it… Probably going to contribute to my ongoing slide into socialism. “Jennifer Government” (Max Barry)

Why being offered 400 channels of TV, 39 mobile phone payments plans and 100 item on the menu of your local curry house doesn’t actually make you feel any better. I’ve always suspected that the cult of “increased choice” is part of a pernicious memeplex that is making us a lot more miserable than we realize. “Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less” (Barry Schwartz)