Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2023 -

Though AI has pulled public focus recently, digital archaeology as practiced by Aycock (Univ. of Calgary) in this splendid book may be more important. Here, he exhumes the digital bones of the video game Amnesia from its 1980s graveyard. Aycock is deeply concerned that all the imagination, coding, business, and engineering represented by a digital artifact can be lost. Sadly, though, archaeology can only save parts of the past. Consider that 90 percent of all films made prior to 1930 no longer exist. Aycock's foray into digital archaeology reanimates a game lost to society for 40 years. An expert detective, Aycock finds game information in social media posts, uncovers its business origins at Harper Collins publishers, and explores biographical information on the game's author, Thomas Disch. He even runs the old software on a game emulator and simulates gameplay on old Apple II computers. Aycock reminds the reader that contemporary culture is surrounded by a growing heap of digital artifacts that already lie moribund and unstudied. He ends on a thankful but cautionary note, observing that because he has "the privilege to do this work ... [he is] able to help uncover and preserve the knowledge and human creativity that is encased in digital artifacts" (p. 185).Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

This book has four parts and four notable authors: Spector (visiting scholar, MIT; formerly, Google); Norvig (distinguished education fellow, Stanford Univ.; Google); Wiggins (Columbia Univ.; the New York Times); (Wing, Columbia Univ.). Part 1 argues that although the definition of data science has no consensus, a working definition can be "the study of extracting value from data--value in the form of insight and conclusions" (p. 7). The text explains that data science combines three fields: statistics, operations research, and computing. Part 2 discusses six data science applications, to which an "analysis rubric" consisting of seven considerations for evaluating any application is applied. Three are implementation-oriented elements: tractable data, the technical approach, and dependability. The other four are requirements-oriented: understandability, clear objectives, toleration of failures, and issues of risk and ethics. Part 3 deals with challenges in building data science applications, providing detailed discussion of each of the seven facets of the analysis rubric. Part 4 discusses the need to improve understanding by broadening educational opportunities in data science, especially by using data science and technology in teaching data science. The book concludes with summary recommendations and should be required reading for anyone interested in data science, whether as learner, researcher, or policy maker.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

Cybersecurity is one of the most critical factors influencing people's lives today. Absent the technical digital infrastructure functioning as designed, all vital parts of the economy are vulnerable. Unfortunately, however, systematic cyberattacks have exposed critical vulnerabilities in the digital infrastructure itself. This book offers an in-depth look at our cyber adversaries and their strategies. Clinton (Internet Security Alliance) has organized the 13 excellent chapters in two parts (many as coauthor) that explore ways to handle the growing cybersecurity problem. As the text makes clear, there are no simple solutions. Several chapters provide extensive discussions about the complexity of building secure devices and implementing effective standards. After reading this book, readers will understand that any successful cybersecurity initiative conducted on a national level needs to consider technical, economic, political, legal, and ethical dimensions, and that the ongoing progress in, for example, artificial intelligence (AI) or computing platforms creates asymmetries in the cybersecurity field that can be exploited. Given such complexities, contributing authors stress overall that public-private partnerships are the only way to move forward. Also, increasing educational efforts combined with market and business incentives should be a part of the strategy. The content of this volume is up-to-date throughout, and will provide an excellent overview for readers at all levels.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

In this book, Dalelio explains the phenomenon of interactive media and its pervasiveness in people's lives. The author argues that all of today's interactive media are digital, networked, and databased, making them potentially powerful whether for advancing democracy, collaboration, activism, marketing, or community building. At the same time, this media environment gives rise to new gatekeepers of information and emerging concerns about privacy and surveillance. The author poses thought-provoking questions but does not provide definitive answers. If this book is adopted as a textbook for an undergraduate class, it can certainly prompt rich discussions and debates. Each chapter is compelling enough to cause readers to do further research on the topic at hand. Throughout the book, readers are introduced to pertinent concepts that are clearly explained with examples aptly provided. Examples are drawn from popular culture and are relatable, making the text attractive and interesting for the target audience. Chapters do not have to be read in sequence. However, if they are read sequentially, readers might indeed come to realize the magnitude and complexity of intertwined relationships among consumers, corporations, and government, all driven by the interactive media discussed.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students and faculty. General readers.

Computer science began as a science but has evolved beyond over the years. It may be hard, however, to perceive its artistic pulse without helpful interpretation, since the vast majority of computer science books glide on the safer and well-polished surface of settled science. This book ventures into the performing arts aspect of the field, documenting a practice that has existed for decades but that has often been dismissed as an exercise in the "mere" use of computers as tools. Just as musical instruments or woodworking tools can be used to express creative intent, however, so also can computers and their programs. Software, an ineffable and often hard to communicate medium, becomes the intermediary between performer and spectators in live coding events. And sometimes, even the latter distinction blurs as creative experiences become participatory and multidisciplinary. This book offers a summary of the history of live coding, a catalog of some of the most influential live coders, and an analysis of this creative practice. In this text, Blackwell (Univ. of Cambridge) and four coauthors eschew conventional treatments of computer science, providing a unique perspective that is based on artistic insights, including such elements as performance style, notation, time criticality, and more. The result is a valuable interdisciplinary voyage for all.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Sharples (The Open University, UK) and Perez y Perez (Metropolitan Autonomous Univ., Mexico) are leaders in the field of computer-generated writing. Perez y Perez is the original creator of the highly popular writing program MEXICA (based on his 1999 dissertation). The field of AI-generated writing has exploded even more in the months since this book was published, thanks to the popularity of Chat-GPT. Here, the authors provide a history of machines that write, starting with the Eureka Machine of 1845.The most important development was Scott Turner's invention of the MINSTREL program in the 1990s. Sharples and Perez y Perez pursue three routes to explain how machines can write stories and poems: the process requires a story generating program, a storyworld of believable characters and settings, and "a working model of a storyteller." The ultimate challenge--not yet achieved--is for a program to create empathy. Unfortunately, the examples of creative writing in the book are not very interesting: much more work remains. One delightful chapter shows readers how they can create a primitive story generator with slips of paper and empty yoghurt pots. The style of the book is only as technical as necessary. This timely work has rich explanatory notes, a good bibliography, and a superb index.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

As expected from a handbook with the goal of summarizing current debates, questions are posed and controversies noted more often than answers are offered in this collection of 21 essays. However, surveying so many different angles on artificial intelligence (AI) allows some insight-inducing themes to emerge. AI and machine learning (ML) are everywhere, from a cellphone's virtual assistant to tech support chatbots, including in the machines that decipher handwritten addresses for the US Postal Service. Many AI systems are assisted by small armies of humans who fill in when the software fails. Such technology remains invisible to most people yet shapes their understandings of the world and themselves. People think and categorize, work, play, and govern themselves differently because of AI--they adopt algorithmic thinking, see new value in inferential reasoning because of big data, and treat anthropomorphic robots like persons. Sometimes these changes are obvious or can be articulated, but some seem to influence human experience and expectations of the world itself, as in the debatable but widespread idea that minds are computers, and computers are (so far fairly limited) minds. Many will use this book, though specialists are likely to be most interested.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students and faculty. General readers.

This book reflects the interdisciplinary need to understand the power and limitations of big data, exploring the context of big data and its impacts on society and various research endeavors. Building on a range of literature, Edmond (Trinity College Dublin) and coauthors, combining their skills of researcher, computer scientist, and cultural heritage professional, contextualize their work by incorporating data from interviews conducted with others in these fields. Though it focuses on explaining the polysemy of data, the text further encourages readers to ask questions about, e.g., who controls data and to what purpose, or who serves as a gatekeeper and for what aspects of the data, especially when its provenance is unknown or missing. The authors also explore the nature of invisible data, e.g., from data not yet digitized to data omitted from the conversation, such as documents in underrepresented languages or those obscured by an algorithm. The authors situate their work in a third, emerging wave of ethics, describing these challenges so as to bring the conversation forward toward solutions. This book deserves a wide audience including students in social science fields; professionals in archives, libraries, and museums in the midst of digitizing collections; and researchers in computer science and humanistic disciplines.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.

Keogh (Queensland Univ. of Technology, Australia) argues against the notion of there being anything like a coherent videogame industry consisting of large companies specialized for developing so-called AAA (or triple-A) titles. Instead, he demonstrates that most game production is done by small studios, some developing original IP and others doing client-driven work, often in haphazard or ad hoc circumstances (such as in coworking spaces, coffee shops, etc.), and in an only nominally organized manner. Using ideas famously articulated by Pierre Bourdieu about angling for recognition in fields of cultural production, and also connecting to paradigms familiar in creative industries studies, Keogh paints a portrait of game-making (mainly in Australia) where many creators are at the perceived margins of practice and struggle to define their relationship to an imagined industry. The most engaging chapter explores the disconnect between academic programs in game design, student expectations, and the companies that may or may not hire these students. As Keogh argues, what game design programs want to do (produce students who can autonomously pursue game design in varied circumstances) is often at odds with students' aspirations, where initial expectations often connect to a hegemonic gaming culture and imagined success based on their experience as players of games.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals. Students in two-year technical programs.

Despite its anomalous title, describing a context in which more and more intellectual commerce is digital, this book offers a highly relevant collection of short essays about the software that makes it all work. Though it includes a few essays about coding per se, the collection also offers an overall look at the history of software and coding languages and some anecdotal pieces about unique successes and failures. The volume is intended to develop readers' appreciation for the critical role of software in their lives. Titles include, e.g., "Nakamoto's Prophecy: Bitcoin and the Revolution in Trust," by Quinn DuPont; "Telegram: The Platform That Became 'the Internet' in Iran," by Mahsa Alimardani and Afsaneh Rigot; and "Encoding Gender," by Meredith Broussard. Contributing authors are a mix of technology journalists, university faculty who study science and technology, and computer scientists. Bosch (Arizona State Univ.) leads a collaborative project between her institution, Slate magazine, and the former New America foundation. Each essay is fully referenced, and all can be read independently. The book should broadly interest all in a university community. That said, there could be physical concerns in the context of library collections, as this is a typical consumer-grade paperback such as one might pick up at an airport.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.