I’m writing to share news of my new book – THE PHILOSOPHER OF PALO ALTO: Mark Weiser, Xerox PARC, and the Original Internet of Things– which was just published by Chicago two weeks ago. The book chronicles the rise of ubiquitous computing at Xerox PARC in the 80s and 90s, as well as related developments in wearable computing and AI at the MIT Media Lab.
For a longer description + some upcoming author events in Palo Alto, see the University of Chicago Press website: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo194495767.html
John Tinnell
Associate Professor of English
Director of Digital Studies
University of Colorado Denver
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Blurbs for The Philosopher of Palo Alto
“This riveting, up-close account reveals how one man’s dream of benevolent computing helped set us on the road to the hyper-connected, surveillance-driven nightmare we inhabit today. A deeply unsettling and cautionary tale.”
— Fred Turner, author of From Counterculture to Cyberculture and The Democratic Surround
“In the life of Mark Weiser, John Tinnell has found a morality tale for our times. For anyone looking to understand how technology is shaping society today, The Philosopher of Palo Alto is a compelling and necessary read.”
— Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows and The Glass Cage
“Along with Doug Engelbart’s intelligence augmentation and Alan Kay’s Dynabook, Mark Weiser’s ubiquitous computing is one of the three big concepts that Silicon Valley has fed off of for decades. Tinnell has done a wonderful job of capturing the arc of Weiser’s ideas.”
— John Markoff, author of Whole Earth
