Length9h 53m
About this audiobook
An exhilarating, elegant memoir and a significant polemic on how computers and algorithms shape our understanding of the world and of who we are
Bitwise is a wondrous ode to the computer languages and codes that captured technologist David Auerbach’s imagination. With a philosopher’s sense of inquiry, Auerbach recounts his childhood spent drawing ferns with the programming language Logo on the Apple IIe, his adventures in early text-based video games, his education as an engineer, and his contributions to instant messaging technology developed for Microsoft and the servers powering Google’s data stores. A lifelong student of the systems that shape our lives—from the psychiatric taxonomy of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual to how Facebook tracks and profiles its users—Auerbach reflects on how he has experienced the algorithms that taxonomize human speech, knowledge, and behavior and that compel us to do the same.
Into this exquisitely crafted, wide-ranging memoir of a life spent with code, Auerbach has woven an eye-opening and searing examination of the inescapable ways in which algorithms have both standardized and coarsened our lives. As we engineer ever more intricate technology to translate our experiences and narrow the gap that divides us from the machine, Auerbach argues, we willingly erase our nuances and our idiosyncrasies—precisely the things that make us human.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.8 (431)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon
GenreBiography and Memoir, Technology
Length9 hrs 53 mins
Narrated byDavid Marantz
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateAug 28, 2018
LanguageEnglish
How to Test Negative for StupidJohn Kennedy8h 13m4.7 (9.7K)$28 · $0.00
Defying JihadEsther Ahmad8h 50m4.7 (4.8K)$20
Bad Fat Black GirlSesali Bowen6h 32m4.7 (2.8K)$24 · $0.00
Send MeMarty Skovlund, Joe Kent8h 10m4.7 (1.6K)$26 · $0.00
Left for DeadEbony Canion5h 34m4.7 (2.2K)$17
John Muir: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth & Letters to a Friend (Annotated)John Muir10h 13m4.7 (1.1K)$1.99 · $0.00
Invisible StormJason Kander6h 48m4.7 (3.2K)$24 · $0.00
Forever BoyKate Swenson9h 27m4.7 (5K)$29 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m4.7 (4.8K)$29 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m4.6 (11.9K)$29 · $0.00
A Bridge Not Too FarDeepak Ohri4h 55m4.8 (179)$15
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m4.6 (9.3K)$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m4.7 (343)$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m4.6 (10.8K)$24 · $0.00
Finding MeViola Davis9h 15m4.6 (256.4K)$29 · $0.00
Scandal Between the Sheets & Stranded with the Tempting StrangerBrenda Jackson9h 22m4.8 (141)$24 · $0.00
The Dangerous Truth about Today’s MarijuanaLaura Stack CSP, MBA9h 57m4.7 (384)$20 · $0.00
Frosty: The incredible true story of the boy from Doonside who became a Bathurst kingMark Winterbottom8h 9m4.8 (50)$26 · $0.00
Cadillac Desert, Revised and Updated EditionMarc Reisner27h 56m4.4 (13.6K)$30
The Honey BusMeredith May9h 31m4.4 (16.6K)$25 · $0.00
Operation PedestalMax Hastings12h 29m4.4 (5.2K)$29 · $0.00
When the Heavens Went on SaleAshlee Vance18h 20m4.4 (3K)$40 · $0.00
Everybody Has a Podcast (Except You)Justin McElroy, Travis McElroy, Griffin McElroy5h 9m4.3 (2.3K)$24 · $0.00
Hands of TimeRebecca Struthers8h 8m4.4 (1.3K)$26 · $0.00
Never Lost AgainBill Kilday10h 1m4.4 (805)$29 · $0.00
How the Internet HappenedBrian McCullough13h 28m4.3 (2.7K)$23 · $0.00
Collected Writings of Nikola TeslaNikola Tesla, Thomas Commerford Martin21h 50m4.3 (1.7K)$1 · $0.00
Just AspireAjai Chowdhry9h 13m4.4 (260)$29 · $0.00
The Little Book of AliensAdam Frank8h 20m4.3 (1.3K)$26 · $0.00
The inventions, researches and writings of Nikola Tesla (Annotated)Thomas Commerford Martin16h 59m4.3 (1.3K)$2 · $0.00
KargilV.P. Malik15h 18m4.3 (2K)$24 · $0.00
Experiments with Alternating CurrentsNikola Tesla9h 6m4.3 (874)$1 · $0.00
Fire on the HorizonTom Shroder, John Konrad8h 23m4.3 (858)$26 · $0.00
The Smell of Kerosene (Annotated)National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Donald L. Mallick, Peter W. Merlin11h 32m4.3 (523)$2 · $0.00
The Boy Who Harnessed the WindWilliam Kamkwamba, Bryan Mealer10h 5m4.2 (78.9K)$29 · $0.00
Mars Rover CuriosityRob Manning, William L. Simon7h 43m4.3 (1.7K)$20
Across the Airless WildsEarl Swift10h 8m4.3 (1.3K)$29 · $0.00
You may also like
Who's Raising the Kids?Susan Linn11h 7m4.0 (488)$20
Making SenseSam Harris22h 27m4.1 (3K)$46 · $0.00
Big DataViktor Mayer-Schönberger, Kenneth Cukier9h 41m4.0 (27.3K)$29 · $0.00
The NumeratiStephen Baker7h 55m3.6 (2K)$17 · $0.00
The Art Of Conjuring Alternate RealitiesShivam Shankar Singh, Anand Venkatanarayanan9h 50m4.3 (371)$29 · $0.00
BlindsightMatt Johnson PhD, Prince Ghuman9h4.3 (791)$20 · $0.00
We Have Been HarmonizedKai Strittmatter10h 29m4.3 (4.3K)$29 · $0.00
The Immortal King RaoVauhini Vara12h 43m3.7 (6.1K)$33 · $0.00
The Creativity CodeMarcus du Sautoy9h 54m4.0 (2.2K)$20 · $0.00
Attention SpanGloria Mark10h 52m3.7 (2.3K)$29 · $0.00
True EnoughFarhad Manjoo7h 22m3.9 (1K)$17 · $0.00
The Technological SocietyJacques Ellul21h 21m4.3 (2.3K)$30
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
The Image, 50th Anniversary EditionDaniel J. Boorstin10h 50m4.3 (5.7K)$23
Void StarZachary Mason15h 56m3.7 (3.7K)$23 · $0.00
Screen PeopleMegan Garber7h 40m3.5 (100)$26 · $0.00
AI, Consciousness, and the SelfSaraban K. K. 50m4.9 (12) Only with Ultra
The Power Of Mass PersuasionEdivaldo Ascaneo28m$6 · $0.00
Words and Electricity: On the Fading Edge of LanguageTz47m4.4 (60)Free
The Information TradeAlexis Wichowski8h 56m3.9 (156)$29 · $0.00