Items related to The Machine in the Ghost: Digitality and Its Consequences
Synopsis
We live in a digital age, buy and sell in a digital economy, and consume—oh do we consume—digital media. The digital lies at the heart of our contemporary, information-heavy, media-saturated lives, and although we may talk about the digital as a cultural phenomenon, the thing itself—digitality—is often hidden to us, a technology that someone else has invented and that lives buried inside our computers, tablets, and smartphones. In this book, Robin Boast follows the video streams and social media posts to their headwaters in order to ask: What, exactly, is the digital?
Boast tackles this fundamental question by exploring the origins of the digital and showing how digital technology works. He goes back to 1874, when a French telegraph engineer, Jean-Maurice-Émile Baudot, invented the first means of digital communication, the Baudot code. From this simple 5-bit code, Boast takes us to the first electronic computers, to the earliest uses of graphics and information systems in the 1950s, our interactions with computers through punch cards and programming languages, and the rise of digital media in the 1970s.Via various and sometimes unanticipated historical routes, he reveals the foundations of digitality and how it has flourished in today’s explosion of technologies and the forms of communication and media they enable, making real the often intangible force that guides so much of our lives.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
Robin Boast is professor of cultural information science at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He has published widely in the field of information and the culture of the digital.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Search results for The Machine in the Ghost: Digitality and Its Consequences
Stock Image
The Machine in the Ghost : Digitality and Its Consequences
Published by
Reaktion Books, Limited, 2017
ISBN 10: 1780237391
ISBN 13: 9781780237398
Used
Hardcover
Seller: Better World Books, Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Very Good. Used book that is in excellent condition. May show signs of wear or have minor defects. Seller Inventory # 14710898-6
Quantity: 1 available
Stock Image
The Machine in the Ghost: Digitality and Its Consequences
Seller: Midtown Scholar Bookstore, Harrisburg, PA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Good. Good - Bumped and creased book with tears to the extremities, but not affecting the text block, may have remainder mark or previous owner's name - GOOD Standard-sized. Seller Inventory # M1780237391Z3
Quantity: 1 available
Stock Image
The Machine in the Ghost: Digitality and Its Consequences
Seller: Midtown Scholar Bookstore, Harrisburg, PA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Acceptable. HARDCOVER Acceptable - This is a significantly damaged book. It should be considered a reading copy only. Please order this book only if you are interested in the content and not the condition. May be ex-library. Standard-sized. Seller Inventory # M1780237391Z4
Quantity: 1 available
Stock Image
The Machine in the Ghost: Digitality and its Consequences
Seller: WorldofBooks, Goring-By-Sea, WS, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR009134360
Quantity: 2 available
Seller Image
Machine in the Ghost : Digitality and Its Consequences
Seller: GreatBookPrices, Columbia, MD, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 28082380-n
Quantity: 3 available
Stock Image
Machine in the Ghost Format: Hardcover
Published by
University of Chicago press, 2017
ISBN 10: 1780237391
ISBN 13: 9781780237398
New
Hardcover
Seller: INDOO, Avenel, NJ, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: New. Brand New. Seller Inventory # 9781780237398
Quantity: Over 20 available
Seller Image
Machine in the Ghost : Digitality and Its Consequences
Seller: GreatBookPrices, Columbia, MD, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: As New. Unread book in perfect condition. Seller Inventory # 28082380
Quantity: 3 available
Stock Image
The Machine in the Ghost: Digitality and its Consequences
Seller: Books Puddle, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Condition: New. pp. 224. Seller Inventory # 26375008120
Quantity: 4 available
Seller Image
The Machine in the Ghost
Seller: Rarewaves.com USA, London, LONDO, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardback. Condition: New. We live in a digital age, within a digital economy, continuously engaged with digital media. Digital encoding lies at the heart of our contemporary mobile-obsessed, information-heavy, media-saturated world, but it is usually regarded - if it is thought of at all - as something inaccessible, virtual or ephemeral, hidden deep within the workings of our computers, tablets and smartphones. It is surprising that, despite the profusion of books on the history of computers and computing, little has been written about what makes them possible. So what exactly is 'the digital'? Where did it come from? What do we actually know about it? Robin Boast tackles these fundamental questions in The Machine in the Ghost - and uncovers some very surprising answers.The book navigates the history of digitality, from the earliest use of digital encoding in a French telegraph invented in 1874, to the first electronic computers; the earliest uses within graphics and information systems in the 1950s; our interactions with computers through punch cards and programming languages; and the rise of digital media in the 1970s. Via these various, sometimes unanticipated historical routes, Boast reveals the foundations of digitality, our contemporary digital media, as something very real - the digital Machine in the virtual Ghost. Seller Inventory # LU-9781780237398
Quantity: 2 available
Stock Image
The Machine in the Ghost: Digitality and its Consequences
Seller: Majestic Books, Hounslow, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: New. pp. 224. Seller Inventory # 372085927
Quantity: 4 available