Life in Code
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The never-more-necessary return of one of our most vital and eloquent voices on technology and culture, the author of the seminal Close to the Machine The last twenty years have brought us the rise of the internet, the development of artificial intelligence, the ubiquity of once unimaginably powerful computers, and the thorough transformation of our economy and society. Through it all, Ellen Ullman lived and worked inside that rising culture of technology, and in Life in Code she tells the continuing story of the changes it wrought with a unique, expert perspective. When Ellen Ullman moved to San Francisco in the early 1970s and went on to become a computer programmer, she was joining a small, idealistic, and almost exclusively male cadre that aspired to genuinely change the world. In 1997 Ullman wrote Close to the Machine, the now classic and still definitive account of life as a coder at the birth of what would be a sweeping technological, cultural, and financial revolution. Twenty years later, the story Ullman recounts is neither one of unbridled triumph nor a nostalgic denial of progress. It is necessarily the story of digital technology’s loss of innocence as it entered the cultural mainstream, and it is a personal reckoning with all that has changed, and so much that hasn’t. Life in Code is an essential text toward our understanding of the last twenty years—and the next twenty.
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I love Ellen Ullman's writing and personal anecdotes on coding culture, the allure of algorithms, about falling into the zone and about becoming closer to the machine. She's been on the scene for 40 years now and has the ability to zoom out, and reflect on SF's startup culture, not to trust the bubbles and the bursts, how the web revolution got rid of the middleman. Plus, she's had a unique voice about the industry's geek guy culture (she demonstrates how present it is even in mooc classes) and its inherent sexism for a while already. This new collection of essays falls well in line with her previous work. The only thing out of place is the mid-section about Artificial Life, as it feels detached from the more personal narrative of the other chapters.
Should be compulsory reading for anyone in software. The chapter on MOOCs (“Programming for the Millions”) is especially good.
As with basically every tech book I've ever read, I can't help but wish I was getting the same perspective on the most recent developments. 2017 is starting to feel like a long time ago, especially in internet time.
There are personal details, but there are chapters that read like magazine articles or essays, including citation of other sources and what appear to be recounting interviews or discussion with experts/people in the fields in question. Kind of a mix of chronological and topic specific organization peppered with flashbacks.
There is some wonder and some nostalgia, but there's also ‘wow, this boys club really sucks', and ‘I have (legitimate) concerns about what all this tech is doing to us as humans' both then and now.
Also a fair bit of how shitty expectations/labour practices were (are?) for programmers, and a good dose of ‘they don't make ‘em like they used to'.
Interesting to get this POV on Y2K, the dot-com bubble.
Always love to wander through speculation about true artificial intelligence and tackling the real barriers to creating such, the larger questions about what humans know about consciousness, sentience, intelligence that could possibly be replicated in machines. The discussion of how a living being, an animal, is embodied directly affecting the development of the mind, was particularly fascinating.
The moments where Ullman made a point of hoping/encouraging increases in diversity in the field of programming, in technological solutions that aid a better, fairer society were somewhat watered down by the pessism pervading much of her reflections.
Overall I think this book was a bit of a mismatch for me as a reader. I'm here for robots and social change, but Ullman's painting more a dystopian vision of the future than a solar punk one, and merrily dives into computer talk when I don't actually care about/comprehend the nitty gritty (I'm part of the problem! 🤦🏼♂️). Lopsided choice on my part. Thank goodness the library lets me make these booboos without buyer's remorse.
