Electric Dreams: Computers in American Culture

by Ted Friedman

Electric Dreams turns to the past to trace the cultural history of computers. Ted Friedman charts the struggles to define the meanings of these powerful machines over more than a century, from the failure of Charles Babbage’s “difference engine” in the nineteenth century to contemporary struggles over file swapping, open source software, and the future of online journalism. To reveal the hopes and fears inspired by computers, Electric Dreams examines a wide range of texts, including films, advertisements, novels, magazines, computer games, blogs, and even operating systems.
Electric Dreams argues that the debates over computers are critically important because they are how Americans talk about the future. In a society that in so many ways has given up on imagining anything better than multinational capitalism, cyberculture offers room to dream of different kinds of tomorrow.

Genres: Nonfiction, Technology, History

275 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2005

Reviews

[Ted · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm the author of Electric Dreams, Ted Friedman. For more information about the book, check out http://tedfriedman.com/electric-dreams.

[Cklinet · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Electric Dreams Friedman argues that the use computer is not yet set and we can still redefine the purpose of the computer and electronic technology. He uses the example of the televsion--that it didn't necessarily have to become the passive entertainment device that we know today.
It is written with all of the charm of an intro textbook but with the abysmal addition of jargon. An interesting book, but an awful read.