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   Coming soon..   
      
    The Philosopher of Palo Alto: Mark Weiser, Xerox PARC, and the     
   Original Internet of Things | 1st Edition | Hardcover   
      
   John Tinnell   
      
   University of Chicago Press | University of Chicago Press   
   Technology & Engineering / History / Social Science / Technology Studies /   
   Computers / Internet of Things (IoT)   
      
   Release date May 18, 2023   
      
   "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: Stewart Brand, the   
   Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism   
      
   "A compelling biography of Mark Weiser, a pioneering innovator     
   whose legacy looms over the tech industry's quest to connect     
   everything-and who hoped for something better.   
      
   "When developers and critics trace the roots of today's   
   Internet of Things-our smart gadgets and smart cities-they may   
   single out the same creative source: Mark Weiser (1952-99), the   
   first chief technology officer at Xerox PARC and the so-called   
   "father of ubiquitous computing." But Weiser, who died young at   
   age 46 in 1999, would be heartbroken if he had lived to see the   
   ways we use technology today.   
      
   "As John Tinnell shows in this thought-provoking narrative,   
   Weiser was an outlier in Silicon Valley. A computer scientist   
   whose first love was philosophy, he relished debates about the   
   machine's ultimate purpose. Good technology, Weiser argued,   
   should not mine our experiences for saleable data or demand our   
   attention; rather, it should quietly boost our intuition as we   
   move through the world.   
      
   "Informed by deep archival research and interviews with   
   Weiser's family and colleagues, The Philosopher of Palo Alto   
   chronicles Weiser's struggle to initiate a new era of   
   computing. Working in the shadows of the dot-com boom, Weiser   
   and his collaborators made Xerox PARC headquarters the site of   
   a grand experiment. Throughout the building, they embedded   
   software into all sorts of objects-coffeepots, pens, energy   
   systems, ID badges-imbuing them with interactive features.   
   Their push to integrate the digital and the physical soon   
   caught on. Microsoft's Bill Gates flagged Weiser's Scientific   
   American article "The Computer for the 21st Century" as a must-   
   read. Yet, as more tech leaders warmed to his vision, Weiser   
   grew alarmed about where they wished to take it.   
      
   "In this fascinating story of an innovator and a big idea,   
   Tinnell crafts a poignant and critical history of today's   
   Internet of Things. At the heart of the narrative is Weiser's   
   desire for deeper connection, which animated his life and   
   inspired his notion of what technology at its best could be.   
      
      
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