Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation

By Joseph Weizenbaum

Book Overview

Computer Power and Human Reason is a distinguished computer scientist's elucidation of the impact of scientific rationality on man's self-image.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0716704641
• ISBN13: 9780716704645
• Release Date: January 1976
• Publisher: San Francisco: W.H. Freeman
• Length: 300 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 5.5" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Should be on the reading list of every computer engineer

This book is a basic philosophical treatment of computing. I think that it should be included as a basic part of any Computer Science / Computer Engineer curriculum in respectable universities, along with Roger Penrose book, The Emperor's new mind, it creats a better understanding of what is human and what is mechanic for all those who need to know it.Should Computer Science / Engineering freshmen/women in universities know? My answer is YES, in their first year !

Perhaps the best ever book on the social meaning of computer

This is perhaps the best book ever written on issues of computer technology and modern life, in the sense that it says a lot of really important things and is also very readable by both lay persons and technical persons. People like Jacques Ellul, Arnold Gehlen et al. have written very important texts in this area, but are much less "accessible". If the truth only counts when it is absorbed by persons, Weizenbaum's book stands out as being engrossing and a pleasure to read, as well as saying what needs to be said. It is very sad that the second edition which was supposed to be out a year or so ago has not appeared. But in no way has 20 years "dated" the present text. _Computer Power and Human Understanding_ explains why we have such problems as Y2K, etc.

The Computer Programmer

I read parts of this book, thinking highly of it. I thought one particular passage from it, as quoted in Gates by Stepehen Manes and Paul Andrews, particulary stood amid the limelight: [t]he computer programmer . . . is a creator of universes for which alone is the lawgiver. . . .No playwright, no stage director, no emperor, however powerful, has ever exercised such absolute authority to arrange a stage of field a battle and to command such unswervingly dutiful actors or troops.

The aestthetics of computing

An authority in the field of artificial intelligence and computer science in general, Joseph Weizenbaum provides insight in proceedings in that area but mainly warns about what these developments may lead to. It is very entertaining to read this book some 20 years after original publication and see how many of what we believe are recent developments were actually implemented back then already (on one or two priceless "super" computers). Very dogmatic and patronizing at times, it still is a good read if only for the thought provoking ideas like: if electronic computers would have been used in the manhattan project, today we would assume that development of the atomic bomb would have been impossible without it.

Important book about the role of computers in our culture

This remains one of the best books about the role of computers in our society, dealing with such topics as: (1) How computers, by doing clerical work faster than human clerks, have enabled established bureaucratic structures to endure, and therefore the "computer revolution" has really been a powerful conservative/reactionary social process. (2) How huge incomprehensible computer systems come to tyrannize people (both end users and maintenance programmers) into submitting to the systems' irrational behavior, because the known problems cannot be fixed without risk of making things even worse. (3) The social responsibility of technical workers, who generally are myopically focused on "efficiently" doing whatever they do, without being concerned about *what* should be being done and whether what *they* are working on is something which should be done differently or not be done at all. This book should be *must* reading for all computer programmers, computer "scientists", et al., to help them begin to think more about the social context of technology, and begin to aspire to *wisdom* and *responsibility* commensurate with the social impact of their work. "Computer Power and Human Reason" is also well written to be understandable by lay persons. A wide range of readers should find it enjoyable, interesting and thought-provoking. Thus it can help "Everyman" understand better the role of computers in our lives.