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5 Werken 99 Leden 2 Besprekingen

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Fotografie: Bob Seidensticker

Werken van Bob Seidensticker

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Algemene kennis

Geslacht
male
Nationaliteit
USA
Woonplaatsen
Seattle, Washington, USA
Opleiding
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1980)
Beroepen
computer software designer
computer designer
Korte biografie
After graduating from MIT in 1980, Bob Seidensticker designed digital hardware, about which he wrote his first book, The Well-Tempered Digital Design (Addison-Wesley, 1986). He has programmed in a dozen computer languages and in environments ranging from punch cards, to one of the first windowing environments, to MS-DOS, to Windows (starting with version 1.0). He is a co-contributor to 14 software patents and has worked at a number of technology companies from a 10-person startup to Microsoft and IBM. [retrieved 5/9/17 from Amazon.com, Cross Examined page]

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Besprekingen

This is a fascinating yet flawed book. Robert Seidensticker's argument is that people have long overestimated the speed of technological change, which he demonstrates by surveying the decades of grandiose predictions that have fallen flat. From them he derives a series of "high-tech myths" that serve as a commonality running through many of these overestimates, before concluding by drawing some conclusions as to why people do that and how they might avoid making such mistakes in the future. Seidensticker's thesis is a credible one, and his examples show how it has merit, but his analysis suffers from a degree of confirmation bias by cherry-picking his examples and ignoring or glancing over ones which might require a greater degree of qualification. Had he pursued a more nuanced study he might have produced a more valuable examination of human reaction to technological change, though it would probably not have been as forceful as what he does provide his readers.… (meer)
1 stem
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MacDad | Mar 27, 2020 |
I'll start off by saying that I am an atheist.

I enjoyed this book, but it has a little trouble being both a narrative and a fair-minded examination of belief and atheism. The traits that make the characters more vivid unbalance the intellectual argument.

The central character is Paul Winston, a young man with a criminal background who has been taken under the wing of of the Reverend Stephen Hargrove, whose church specializes in apologetics. He has found peace and purpose as the pastor's assistant. When Hargraves predicts a disaster that seems to be fulfilled by the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, his church becomes famous and attendance swells. Hargrove sends Winston out to do some door-to-door evangelizing, and he encounters the recluse Jim Emerson. Emerson counters all of Winston's apologetics with arguments that Winston cannot refute. Hargrove urges him to keep trying, and Winston is reluctant to admit that he is losing the argument with Emerson. It is here that things get complicated. It turns out that Hargrove and Emerson (and it is revealed, Winston), have a messy history, and Hargrove has feet, if not legs and knees of clay. On the other hand, perhaps as balance, Emerson's isolated life does not argue for the benefits of unbelief. In the end, both Hargrove and Emerson change for the better, which may also be an attempt at balance. I found the ending rather odd; for one thing, Winston is not, really a prodigal, but I suppose that it bespeaks forgiveness, but surely he isn''t going back to either of his earlier lives. While this all makes the characters more interesting, it also risks making the intellectual arguments more emotional as the reader reacts to them.

A secondary plot is that of Winston's fiancee, Athena Farber. She is believed killed in the earthquake, but was rescued and taken in, along with other survivors, by Buddhist monks. The experience makes her rethink her religious beliefs, her engagement, and what she wants for a future. This actually works better than Winston's story, although we don't know the ending.
… (meer)
½
 
Gemarkeerd
PuddinTame | May 9, 2017 |

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Statistieken

Werken
5
Leden
99
Populariteit
#191,538
Waardering
½ 3.7
Besprekingen
2
ISBNs
10
Talen
1

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