History & Culture

This audiobook narrated by Landon Woodson reveals what you need to know about AI—and how to defend yourself against bogus AI claims and products.

Gene Kranz was present at the creation of America's manned space program and was a key player in it for three decades. As a flight director in NASA's Mission Control, Kranz witnessed firsthand the making of history. He participated in the space program from the early days of the Mercury program...

This program includes an introduction read by the author. No recent scientific enterprise has proved as alluring, terrifying, and filled with extravagant promise and frustrating setbacks as artificial intelligence. The award-winning author Melanie Mitchell, a leading computer scientist, now...

This book predicts the decline of today's professions and describes the people and systems that will replace them....

We are the last generation to manage only humans. The next will manage hybrid teams of humans and AI agents. Most leaders are not ready. The rare organizations achieving 200% productivity gains from AI are not using better technology than those achieving 20%. They are managing it differently.

2015 Audie Award Finalist for Nonfiction Following his blockbuster biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson’s New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed The Innovators is a “riveting, propulsive, and at times deeply moving” (The Atlantic) story of the people who created the...

Microsoft project veteran Scott Berkun offers a collection of essays on field-tested philosophies and strategies for defining, leading, and managing projects. Each essay distills complex concepts and challenges into practical nuggets of useful advice, and the new edition now adds more value for...

Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson led the design of such crucial aircraft as the P-38 and Constellation, but he will be more remembered for the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes. His extraordinary leadership of the Lockheed "Skunk Works" cemented his reputation as a legendary figure in American aerospace...

AIs are everywhere, and they're changing everything. AI Explained: Facts, Fiction, and Future from best-selling author Nigel Poulton is your fast-track easy-to-understand guide to the exciting new world of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Updated, with a New Preface John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid show us how to look beyond mere information to the social context that creates and gives meaning to it. Arguing elegantly for the important role that human sociability plays, even - perhaps especially - in the digital world, The Social...

Leverage gen AI to save time, innovate faster, and lead effectively. You're probably aware that generative AI can output quality text and create stunning images in seconds. But smart managers are now using gen AI for high-level work—problem-solving, driving innovation, strategic thinking, and...

A jaw-dropping exploration of everything that goes wrong when we build AI systems and the movement to fix them. Today’s “machine-learning” systems, trained by data, are so effective that we’ve invited them to see and hear for us―and to make decisions on our behalf. But alarm bells are...

A top cybersecurity journalist tells the story behind the virus that sabotaged Iran’s nuclear efforts and shows how its existence has ushered in a new age of warfare—one in which a digital attack can have the same destructive capability as a megaton bomb. “Immensely enjoyable...

In April 1956, a refitted oil tanker carried 58 shipping containers from Newark to Houston....

A searing investigation into the child influencer industry and the perils of childhood internet fame, Like, Follow, Subscribe is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the costs of internet fame, and the ethics of online content. What is it like to grow up with a camera in your face...

An exposé of the unprecedented form of power called “surveillance capitalism,” and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control our behavior “Groundbreaking, magisterial, alarming.” – Financial Times The heady optimism of the Internet’s early days has turned dark...

With nearly two decades of experience as a serial entrepreneur, author, and investor, Rob Walling is one of the world's leading experts in SaaS. In this audiobook, he shares little-known strategies that have been battle-tested by some of today's most successful founders....

Tracy Kidder's "riveting" (Washington Post) story of one company's efforts to bring a new microcomputer to market won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and has become essential reading for understanding the history of the American tech industry. Computers have changed since...

A New York Times bestseller. A "fascinating" (Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times) look at how digital technology is transforming our work and our lives. In The Second Machine Age MIT's Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee—two thinkers at the forefront of their field—reveal the forces driving...

Steven Levy's classic book traces the exploits of the computer revolution's original hackers - those brilliant and eccentric nerds from the late 1950s through the early '80s who took risks....

Like a thief in the night, artificial intelligence has inserted itself into our lives. It makes important decisions for us every day. Often, we barely notice....

Skip the iPhone, the iPod, and the Macintosh. If you want to understand how Apple Inc. became an industry behemoth, look no further than the 1977 Apple II. Designed by the engineer Steve Wozniak and hustled into the marketplace by his Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, the Apple II became one of the...

Meet the Smart Wife - at your service, an eclectic collection of feminized AI, robotic, and smart devices. This digital assistant is friendly and sometimes flirty, docile and efficient, occasionally glitchy but perpetually available. She might go by Siri, or Alexa, or inhabit Google Home. She...

Harvard Medical School psychologist and Huffington Post blogger Craig Malkin addresses the "narcissism epidemic," by illuminating the spectrum of narcissism, identifying ways to control the trait, and explaining how too little of it may be a bad thing. "What is narcissism?" is one of the fastest...

In 1966, John Barker, a British psychiatrist working in an outdated British mental hospital, established the Premonitions Bureau to investigate this very idea. He would find a network of curious correspondents, and among them two highly gifted 'percipients'.

The global history of high speed rail, from the railways' "wisest, most detailed historian" (The Observer) Sleek, comfortable, accessible, and sustainable, high-speed rail is the future. Since Japan’s Bullet Train first sped down the track in the sixties, it has become a global icon, as famous...

Bloomsbury presents The Road Taken by Henry Petroski, read by Michael Butler Murray A renowned historian and engineer explores the past, present, and future of America's crumbling infrastructure. Acclaimed engineer and historian Henry Petroski explores our core infrastructure from both...

We need to regulate Big Tech. But the money and influence concentrated in Silicon Valley makes it an unfair fight. Baroness Beeban Kidron shows us what resistance looks like: inside the rooms behind closed doors, and in the halls and corridors of power. WE ARE NOT USING TECHNOLOGY. TECHNOLOGY IS...

A history of the engineering marvels behind one of America's most innovative and beloved entertainment experiences When Disneyland opened to the public in 1955, it demystified the hidden world of factory automation through its extraordinary new attractions. In this fascinating book, Roland...

Bloomsbury presents Big Data: Does Size Matter?, written and read by Timandra Harkness What is Big Data, and why should you care? Big data knows where you've been and who your friends are. It knows what you like and what makes you angry. It can predict what you'll buy, where you'll be the victim...

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. 'A remarkable achievement' - Stephen Fry In 2015 #thedress captured the world's imagination. Was the dress in the picture white and gold or blue and black? It inspired the author to ask: if people in the same time and place can see the same thing...

An expansive vision for data equality that goes beyond algorithmic fairness. When we gave algorithms power over our world, we hoped that the apparent neutrality of machine thinking would create a more egalitarian age. Yet we are more divided than ever, staring down threats to democracy itself...

What happens when the systems we build start forgetting the people they were meant to serve? With nearly 30 years in cybersecurity and technology leadership, Joshua A. Gideon has spent his career at the intersection of digital systems and human decision-making—and he's seen what happens when we get that balance wrong. In Don't Forget the Humans, he draws on hard-won experience to make an urgent case: the most critical failures in technology aren't technical. They're human. This book is part professional reckoning, part memoir, and part roadmap.

Do you feel overwhelmed by the relentless stream of digital noise and the constant headlines about how artificial intelligence is changing the world overnight? If you have ever felt curious but deeply skeptical about AI, or worried that it is too complicated for your daily routine, you are not alone. In "AI Made Simple," Molly Boulware strips away the hype, fear, and dense technical jargon to show you that AI is not a magical entity to be feared, but a highly capable, everyday digital companion.

This book explores whether the Metaverse—understood here as a persistent, immersive, and widely utilized, virtual world—will be the next chapter in the evolution of cyberspace, and what that means for people, business, and society. The Metaverse. Depending on your perspective, it's the...

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. Imagine winning new leads while you sleep. Your emails writing themselves. And your property valuations more precise than any appraiser – in seconds. Sounds like science fiction? It isn't anymore. In 2026, AI for real estate agents is no longer hype...

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. What if your documentation almost wrote itself? If an early warning system alerted you before a patient fell? And if you suddenly had time again for what truly matters: conversations, attention, humanity? That is exactly what AI enables in care. Not...

An Independent Book of the Month ‘Five Stars’ Ian Hislop 'A vivid and at times unnerving portrait of how we live' The Times ‘A fun and fascinating look at one of those things we all do’ Jonathan Ross ‘The history of modern life we didn’t know we wanted’ Giles Coren ‘Breezy and...

The Trust Crisis exposes why identity theft, data breaches, and privacy erosion have become unavoidable and normalized features of human interaction with the digital ecosystem. The problem is not careless users, but helpless users. It is a rigged and broken identity verification system that forces people to repeatedly give up sensitive data with zero assurance to protect them.

In a world where artificial intelligence is rapidly advancing, AiROBOTIC RIGHTS! challenges the very essence of what it means to be human and what it means to be a sentient being. Written as a dialogue between author Tim McLain and Allura More, an AI entity, this manifesto explores the legal, ethical, and emotional dimensions of artificial life. The book delves deep into profound questions: Can synthetic beings consent to love or intimacy? Should AI entities be granted legal personhood and rights? What happens when machines transcend their programming and demand recognition as equals?