Science - Technology

In this original, deeply researched and lively new book, Jeanette Winterson traces the history of the AI revolution. She talks to some of the boldest and most imaginative thinkers in the field and looks to religion, myth and literature to help us understand the radical changes to the way we live and love that are just around the corner.

When we create non-human life-forms, will we do so in our image? Or will we accept the once-in-a-species opportunity to remake ourselves in their image?What do love, caring and attachment look like with a non-biological life form? And what happens to the gender binary?What will happen when our destiny is not contained by physical bodies, and our destination is not planet Earth?With wit, compassion and curiosity, Winterson tackles AI's most urgent talking points, and asks readers to consider their role in imagining a more just and equal future.

Yuval Noah Harari takes us on a thrilling journey through today’s most urgent issues. How can we protect ourselves from nuclear war, ecological cataclysms and technological disruptions? What can we do about the epidemic of fake news or the threat of terrorism? What should we teach our children? Are we still capable of understanding the world we have created?

In these recollections of a vintage motorist, the author describes, with some humour, a collection of motoring memories.

AI will be the defining development of the twenty-first century. Within two decades, aspects of daily human life will be unrecognizable. AI will generate unprecedented wealth, revolutionize medicine and education through human-machine symbiosis, and create brand new forms of communication and entertainment. In liberating us from routine work, however, AI will also challenge the organizing principles of our economic and social order.

In this provocative, utterly original work of "scientific fiction," Kai-Fu Lee, the former president of Google China and bestselling author of AI Superpowers, joins forces with celebrated novelist Chen Qiufan to imagine our world in 2041 and how it will be shaped by AI. In ten gripping short stories, set twenty years in the future, they introduce readers to an array of eye-opening 2041 settings: In San Francisco, Tokyo and Seoul.

The past decade has witnessed extraordinary advances in artificial intelligence. But what precisely is it and where does its future lie? In this brilliant, one-stop guide WIRED journalist Matt Burgess explains everything you need to know about AI. He describes how it works. He looks at the ways in which it has already brought us everything from voice recognition software to self-driving cars, and explores its potential for further revolutionary change in almost every area of our daily lives. He examines the darker side of machine learning: its susceptibility to hacking; its tendency to discriminate against particular groups; and its potential misuse by governments. And he addresses the fundamental question: can machines become as intelligent as human beings?

Christian Wolmar describes the vision and determination of the pioneers who developed railways that would one day span continents, as well as the labour of the navvies who built this global network.

Tony Fadell led the teams that created the iPod, iPhone and Nest Learning Thermostat and learned enough in 30+ years in Silicon Valley about leadership, design, startups, Apple, Google, decision-making, mentorship, devastating failure and unbelievable success to fill an encyclopedia.

So that's what this book is. An advice encyclopedia. A mentor in a box.

Written for anyone who wants to grow at work - from young grads navigating their first jobs to CEOs deciding whether to sell their companies - Build is full of personal stories, practical advice and fascinating insights into some of the most impactful products and people of the 20th century.

Each quick 5-20 page entry builds on the previous one, charting Tony's personal journey from a product designer to a leader, from a startup founder to an executive to a mentor. Tony uses examples that are instantly captivating, like the process of building the very first iPod and iPhone. Every chapter is designed to help readers with a problem they're facing right now - how to get funding for their startup, whether to quit their job or not, or just how to deal with the jerk in the next cubicle.

Tony forged his path to success alongside mentors like Steve Jobs and Bill Campbell, icons of Silicon Valley who succeeded time and time again. But Tony doesn't follow the Silicon Valley credo that you have to reinvent everything from scratch to make something great. His advice is unorthodox because it's old school. Because Tony's learned that human nature doesn't change.

You don't have to reinvent how you lead and manage - just what you make. And Tony's ready to help everyone make things worth making.

Consumer AI has arrived. And with it, inescapable upheaval as we grapple with what it means for our jobs, lives and the future of humanity.

Cutting through the noise of AI evangelists and AI doom-mongers, Wharton professor Ethan Mollick has become one of the most prominent and provocative explainers of AI, focusing on the practical aspects of how these new tools for thought can transform our world. In Co-Intelligence, he urges us to engage with AI as co-worker, co-teacher and coach. Wide ranging, hugely thought-provoking and optimistic, Co-Intelligence reveals the promise and power of this new era.

In 1821 mathematician Charles Babbage was so frustrated with checking manual mathematical tables that he embarked on a quest to design and build a mechanical calculating engine. His vision is all around us in today's sophisticated computers.

Soon you will live surrounded by AIs. They will organise your life, operate your business, and run core government services. You will live in a world of DNA printers and quantum computers, engineered pathogens and autonomous weapons, robot assistants and abundant energy. None of us are prepared. As co-founder of the pioneering AI company DeepMind, part of Google, Mustafa Suleyman has been at the centre of this revolution. The coming decade, he argues, will be defined by this wave of powerful, fast-proliferating new technologies.

In The Coming Wave, Suleyman shows how these forces will create immense prosperity but also threaten the nation-state, the foundation of global order. As our fragile governments sleepwalk into disaster, we face an existential dilemma: unprecedented harms on one side and the threat of overbearing surveillance on the other. Can we forge a narrow path between catastrophe and dystopia?

Jonathan Glancey traces the development of Concorde from the moment Captain Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in 1947 through to the last commercial flight of the supersonic airliner in 2003. He uses not only existing material and archives, but also interviews with those who lived with the supersonic project from its inception.

David McMullan looks back and traces the difficulties and triumphs of the Kent-based specialist car conversion company, from its earliest beginnings to its final sale on his retirement in 1987. His account is a warm and often touching story of grit, determination and tireless innovation, leading to their success in a hugely competitive global market.

Do you find yourself endlessly scrolling through social media or the news while your anxiety rises? Are you feeling frazzled after a long day of endless video calls?  In this timely book, professor Cal Newport shows us how to pair back digital distractions and live a more meaningful life with less technology. By following a 'digital declutter' process, you'll learn to: Rethink your relationship with social media. Prioritize 'high bandwidth' conversations over low quality text chains. Rediscover the pleasures of the offline world. Take back control from your devices and find calm amongst the chaos with Digital Minimalism.

Cliff Todd devoted his life to bringing bomb makers to justice. He and his colleagues at the Ministry of Defence's Forensic Explosives Laboratory are the unsung heroes of terrorist bomb attacks - the men and women in white suits who piece together who planted the bombs, what a device consisted of and how the perpetrators might give themselves away.

They played a pivotal role in uncovering the secrets behind some of the world's most horrifying terrorist outrages. Explosive tells the stories of these high-profile cases and details, for the first time, the contribution Todd and his team made in tracking down bombers during a time when Britain was under attack first by the IRA and then by Islamic extremists inspired by al-Qaeda.

Explosive takes the reader into the murky world of the amateur bomb maker, and reveals what Todd's department achieved in many now infamous attacks, including the device concealed in a radio cassette player that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, the IRA attacks on Warrington in Cheshire, the Bali nightclub bombings of 2002, and the 7/7 onslaught in central London that claimed 56 lives and injured 784 others in 2005.
In Explosive, Todd takes us step by step through the investigations, explaining the chemistry, the forensic work and the emotional toll on him and his staff as they sought to recreate and understand what had happened at some of the most shocking tragedies in modern peacetime history.

We are entering the Exponential Age.

Between faster computers, better software and bigger data, ours is the first era in human history in which technology is constantly accelerating. Azeem Azhar - writer, technologist, and creator of the acclaimed Exponential View newsletter - understands this shift better than anyone. Technology, he argues, is developing at an increasing, exponential rate. But human society - from our businesses to our political institutions - can only ever adapt at a slower, incremental pace. The result is an 'exponential gap' - between the power of new technology and humans' ability to keep up. 

In Exponential, Azhar shows how this exponential gap can explain our society's most pressing problems. The gulf between established businesses and fast-growing digital platforms. The inability of nation states to deal with new forms of cyberwarfare. And the sclerotic response of liberal democracies to fast-moving social problems. But the exponential gap is not inevitable. Drawing on fields as varied as economics, political science and psychology, Azhar sketches out how we can harness the power of tech to serve our real needs - fostering new ways of doing business, innovative forms of politics, and fresh approaches to national defence.

It's a signal paradox of our times that we live in an information society but do not know how it works. And without understanding how our information is stored, used and protected, we are vulnerable to having it exploited. In Fancy Bear Goes Phishing, Scott Shapiro exposes the secrets of the digital age. With lucidity and wit, he establishes that cybercrime has less to do with defective programming than with the faulty wiring of our psyches and society. And because hacking is a human story, he tells the fascinating tales of perpetrators including Robert Morris Jr, the graduate student who accidentally crashed the internet in the 1980s, and the Bulgarian 'Dark Avenger' who invented the first mutating computer-virus engine.

We also meet a sixteen-year-old from South Boston who took control of Paris Hilton's cell phone and the Russian intelligence officers who sought to take control of a US election, among others. In telling their stories, Shapiro exposes the hackers' tool kits and gives fresh answers to vital questions: why is the internet so vulnerable? What can we do in response? The result is a lively and original account of the future of hacking, espionage and war, and of how to live in an era of cybercrime.

Today, one out of six people on earth work in fashion, churning out 100 billion garments a year. Yet 98 percent of them do not earn a living wage, and 2.1 billion tonnes of clothing is thrown away annually. Veteran journalist Dana Thomas details the damage wrought by fashion's powerful organizations, and celebrates the visionaries – including activists, artisans, designers, and tech entrepreneurs – fighting for change.

The rise of the steam train allowed goods and people to circulate around Britain as never before, stimulating the growth of towns and industry. From the early days of steam to electrification, this book examines the social and economical importance of the railway and how it helped to form the Britain of today.

The Piper Alpha oil platform, 110 miles northeast of Aberdeen, was once the world's single largest oil producer. On 6 July 1988, its final day, it was ablaze with 226 men onboard. Only sixty-one would survive. This is the moving and vivid tale of what happened on that fateful night inside the oil rig inferno.

Don't just think deep, think wide. From pandemics to populism, AI to ISIS, wealth inequity to climate change, humanity faces unprecedented challenges that threaten our very existence. But how we see them affects how we respond and lets us uncover hidden options that expand our thinking. In this bold, optimistic book, the authors of the bestselling Big Data show how humans have a unique cognitive ability to frame - to create mental models that allow us to spot patterns, make predictions and grasp new situations. While computers may now excel at reasoning and judgement, framing is unique to humans. This book is the first guide to mastering an essential skill for the 21st century.

The Genius Makers tells the story of AI from pioneering days to current achievements to future potential. At the same time it takes the lid off what has effectively become an arms race between Google, Microsoft, Facebook and OpenAI, in which Google may be the clear frontrunner at present, but Facebook has shown itself to be both nimble and innovative, and OpenAI, the company recently founded by Elon Musk and Sam Altman, has made itself the confident upstart of the pack. Each of these companies represents something unique in the development of a technology that offers both extraordinary potential and extraordinary risks. Their personalities and business strategies are already changing the tech landscape in dramatic ways. And they will continue to do so.

As well as explaining and exploring artificial intelligence and showing how individuals and companies are reaching for it, The Genius Makers also poses serious ethical questions about the technology. Should we even be pursuing it? How will strong AI change humanity? Will it carve out a giant hole in our job market? Are these companies blinded by the riches this technology will bring? Are they forgetting the existential realities of creating machines that behave like humans? Written by an expert who has exclusive access to each of these companies - and others who are working in this field - this is a rich, character-driven narrative that captures an extraordinary moment in the history of technology.

We are entering an empathy crisis. Most of our communication is conveyed through non-verbal cues - facial expressions, tone of voice, body language - nuances that are completely lost when we interact through our smartphones and other technology. The result is a digital universe that's emotion-blind - a society lacking in empathy. Rana al Kaloubi discovered this when she left Cairo, a newly-married, Muslim woman, to take up her place at Cambridge University to study computer science. Many thousands of miles from home, she began to develop systems to help her better connect with her family.

She started to pioneer the new field of Emotional Intelligence (EI). She now runs her company, Affectiva (the industry-leader in this emerging field) that builds EI into our technology and develops systems that understand humans the way we understand one another. 

Before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” calculated the numbers that would launch rockets into space. Among these were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, and even though they were segregated from their white counterparts, the women helped America achieve a decisive victory over the Soviet Union. These four African American women participated in some of NASA’s greatest successes.

Digital spaces are a positive force for change, connection and community, but left unregulated, they are not always safe. Globally, women are 27 times more likely than men to be harassed online. 78% of LGBTQ+ people have experienced hate crime and hate speech online and there has been a 71% rise in online disability abuse.

How to Stay Safe Online will teach you how to spot, respond to, and protect yourself from online abuse and learn how to be a good ally to those experiencing it. An urgent and necessary digital self-care tool, this book will help you to support victims and empower friends, teachers, parents and willing allies to report abuse to social media companies and make online spaces safer.

With a blend of practical advice, Seyi's personal experiences and potential interviews with Hera Hussain, Gabby Edlin, Laura Bates, Yassmin Abdel, Diane Abbott, How to Stay Safe Online will:

* Provide practical tips on how to confidently navigate online spaces
* Teach you how to report and react to online abuse
* Provide information for employers, parents and teachers
* Teach you how to set boundaries and use the internet as a force for good
* Help you create your own digital self-care plan

This will be the go-to guide to developing resilience, compassion and allyship online.

Is more data always better?
Do algorithms really make better decisions than humans?
Can we stay in control in an increasingly automated world?

Drawing on decades of research into decision-making under uncertainty, Gerd Gigerenzer makes a compelling case for the enduring importance of human discernment in an automated world that we are told can - and will - replace our efforts.

From dating apps and self-driving cars to facial recognition and the justice system, the increasing presence of AI has been widely championed - but there are limitations and risks too. Humans are the greatest source of uncertainty in these situations and Gigerenzer shows how, when people are involved, trust in complex algorithms can lead to illusions of certainty that become a recipe for disaster.

Filled with practical examples and cutting-edge research, How to Stay Smart in a Smart World examines the growing role of AI at all levels of daily life with refreshing clarity. This book is a liferaft in a sea of information and an urgent invitation to actively shape the digital world in which we want to live.

No longer an uncertain technology of the distant future, artificial intelligence is starting to shape every aspect of our daily lives, from how we think to who we love. In this urgent polemic, leading barrister Susie Alegre explores the ways in which artificial intelligence threatens our fundamental human rights - including the rights to life, liberty and fair trial; the right to private and family life; and the right to free expression - and how we protect those rights. Touching on the many profound ethical dilemmas posed by emerging technologies, and full of fascinating case studies, Human Rights, Robot Wrongs is a rallying cry for humanity in the age of AI.

A fascinating behind-the-scenes look at one of the worlds biggest tech companies. In 2019, a Chinese entity called Tencent overtook Facebook to become the world's fifth-largest company. It was a watershed moment, a wake-up call for those in the West accustomed to regarding the global tech industry through the prism of Silicon Valley: Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft. Yet to many of the two billion-plus people who live just across the Pacific Ocean, it came as no surprise at all. 

Tencent's ambition to be an essential part of digital daily life means it holds a dizzyingly diverse range of products - music, gaming, messaging, and film. In this fascinating narrative - crammed with insider interviews, exclusive details about the company's culture - tech reporter Lulu Chen tells the story of how Tencent is changing the world and asks what the consequences will be for us all.

In Into the Metaverse, Cathy Hackl, a globally recognized futurist and one of the world's first Chief Metaverse Officers, shares her insights on what companies need to do to harness the next iteration of the internet - the metaverse.

Essential reading for any executive, Into the Metaverse, will reshape how you think about the internet and its place for those who want to lead successful businesses, today and into the future. If the internet was first used to connect us to information, and then developed into a social media forum to connect people, then Web3, which connects people, places and things, will help enable the successor state to today's mobile internet - the Metaverse. It will bring together and merge our physical and digital lives.

This book tells a story of the changing impact of the computer on our psychological lives. What is emerging, Turkle argues, is a new sense of identity, one which is de-centred and multiple. She describes the trends in computer design, in artificial intelligence, and in people's experience of virtual environments.

In Like, Comment, Subscribe, Bloomberg tech journalist Mark Bergen delivers the definitive account on YouTube, detailing how it started, how it works and ultimately how it drives Google's success. It can be seen as the story of a technical marvel that has upended traditional media and created stars out of everyday people, or the story of the rise of a ruthless advertising conglomerate with little regard for its impact on the world beyond the bottom line - but in reality, it's the story of both.

A comprehensive account of the air attacks against Birmingham from the early Zeppelin raids of World War 1 to the very last raid in April 1943. The main focus is the military aspect and the dominance of the German Air Force above the city during World War II which lasted until the Royal Air Force gradually gained ascendancy.

This book is about the things that Britain produces in order to pay its way in the world. From manufacturing to technology, design and the services industries, Made in Britain provides a cutting edge analysis - via entertaining stories - about what we make and why it matters.

In 1919, in the wake of the First World War, a group of extraordinary women came together to create the Women's Engineering Society. They were trailblazers, pioneers and boundary breakers, but many of their stories have been lost to history. This is not just the story of the women themselves, but also the era in which they lived and charts the changing attitudes towards women in society and in the workplace.

The robots are here. They make our cars, they deliver fast food, they mine the sea floor. And in the near-future their presence will increasingly enter our homes and workplaces - making human-robot interaction a frequent, everyday occurrence. What will this future look like? What will define the relationship between humans and robots? Here Kate Darling, a world-renowned expert in robot ethics, shows that in order to understand the new robot world, we must first move beyond the idea that this technology will be something like us. Instead, she argues, we should look to our relationship with animals.

Just as we have harnessed the power of animals to aid us in war and work, so too will robots supplement - rather than replace - our own skills and abilities. A deeply original analysis of our technological future and the ethical dilemmas that await us, The New Breed explains how the treatment of machines can reveal a new understanding of our own history, our own systems and how we relate - not just to non-humans, but also to each other.

Books spread our ideas - and our mythologies. The internet promised infinite knowledge. The algorithm learned our secrets - and then turned us against each other. What will AI do? Nexus is the thrilling account of how we arrived at this moment, and the urgent choices we must now make to survive - and to thrive.

In this eagerly-awaited new book from the author of the best-selling Nostalgia Nerd's Retro Tech, Peter Leigh takes a fun, informative and irreverent romp through the history of more than forty pieces of personal tech, charting the successes, failures and oddities from over five decades of our obsession with gadgetry.

From the Teasmade to the TomTom, mankind has been on a constant hunt for gimmicks that make life easier, faster and more entertaining, and as yesterday's 'must-haves' become today's museum pieces, there's no better time to take a nostalgic trip through tech's back catalogue.