ELLEN ULLMAN presents Life in Code
Tuesday, August 15, 7:30PM
at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. in Berkeley
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
"Modern human beings have existed for two hundred thousand years;
human beings who have used the modern web have existed for twenty years.
There was a world before the internet, and there will be a world after it." *
Ellen Ullman wrote her first computer program in 1978. Self-taught, she went on to have a twenty-year career as a programmer and software engineer living in San Franciscos South of Market district, the underground of the early internet and the engine of the modern start-up culture. As a writer, Ullmans booksthe memoir Close to the Machine and novels The Bug and By Blood have become landmark works describing the social, emotional, and personal effects of technology.
Ullmans new book, LIFE IN CODE: A Personal History of Technology, follows the changes in technology, and her own insights into those changes, in an evolving story told over seventeen stunning personal essays, beginning with the first chapter, written in 1994, through to the last, written in 2017.
The arc of Ullman's story begins just as the internet is about to enter our lives in the form of early personal computers like Ullmans own TRS-80; continues on to the wild, heady days of the internet's first rise; the lead-up to Y2K when society realized the perils of its dependence upon technology; the quiet that followed the internets fall; and finally to our exuberance as we welcomed the launch of the first iPhone and apps. Throughout the book, we are reminded of how the internet has become our very atmosphere: our companion, our entertainment, our helper, as well as a tool for surveillance and political control.
What helps to give Ullman's work its depth and unique power is her dual stance as insider - as a software engineer - and outsider - as a woman in a world of young men. Ullman tells us that code can be expressive, that algorithms may possess a kind of beauty, a rare blend of creativity and precision. She explores the nature of memory, both human and digital. We follow her as she guides us into the intricacies of artificial intelligence, the complexities that are both technical and philosophical, which ask us to question the very definition of life.
Ullman lets us enter the closed culture where the future uses of technology are decided, one overwhelmingly populated by very wealthy men. She envisions a new army of programmers, coming from all economic strata, ethnicities, and fields of study, who will invade that closed world, demystify the algorithms that envelop us, understand that code is written by human beings and can be changed by human beings - who will "stick a needle into the shiny bubble of the technology world's received wisdom."
Throughout LIFE IN CODE, Ullman lends her sharp mind, her wit, and her beautifully crafted prose to help us look back two decades and see the forces - technical, economic, political - that have led us to where we are now.
--
Important signing details coming soon. Tickets on sale at this link.
*From Life in Code, "While I Was Away."
Tuesday, August 15, 7:30PM
at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. in Berkeley
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
"Modern human beings have existed for two hundred thousand years;
human beings who have used the modern web have existed for twenty years.
There was a world before the internet, and there will be a world after it." *
Ellen Ullman wrote her first computer program in 1978. Self-taught, she went on to have a twenty-year career as a programmer and software engineer living in San Franciscos South of Market district, the underground of the early internet and the engine of the modern start-up culture. As a writer, Ullmans booksthe memoir Close to the Machine and novels The Bug and By Blood have become landmark works describing the social, emotional, and personal effects of technology.
Ullmans new book, LIFE IN CODE: A Personal History of Technology, follows the changes in technology, and her own insights into those changes, in an evolving story told over seventeen stunning personal essays, beginning with the first chapter, written in 1994, through to the last, written in 2017.
The arc of Ullman's story begins just as the internet is about to enter our lives in the form of early personal computers like Ullmans own TRS-80; continues on to the wild, heady days of the internet's first rise; the lead-up to Y2K when society realized the perils of its dependence upon technology; the quiet that followed the internets fall; and finally to our exuberance as we welcomed the launch of the first iPhone and apps. Throughout the book, we are reminded of how the internet has become our very atmosphere: our companion, our entertainment, our helper, as well as a tool for surveillance and political control.
What helps to give Ullman's work its depth and unique power is her dual stance as insider - as a software engineer - and outsider - as a woman in a world of young men. Ullman tells us that code can be expressive, that algorithms may possess a kind of beauty, a rare blend of creativity and precision. She explores the nature of memory, both human and digital. We follow her as she guides us into the intricacies of artificial intelligence, the complexities that are both technical and philosophical, which ask us to question the very definition of life.
Ullman lets us enter the closed culture where the future uses of technology are decided, one overwhelmingly populated by very wealthy men. She envisions a new army of programmers, coming from all economic strata, ethnicities, and fields of study, who will invade that closed world, demystify the algorithms that envelop us, understand that code is written by human beings and can be changed by human beings - who will "stick a needle into the shiny bubble of the technology world's received wisdom."
Throughout LIFE IN CODE, Ullman lends her sharp mind, her wit, and her beautifully crafted prose to help us look back two decades and see the forces - technical, economic, political - that have led us to where we are now.
--
Important signing details coming soon. Tickets on sale at this link.
*From Life in Code, "While I Was Away."
BILL NYE the Science Guy presents Everything All at Once
Sunday, September 10, 7PM
at the UC Theater, 2036 University Ave in Berkeley
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
Everyone has an inner nerd just waiting to be awakened by the right passion. In Everything All at Once, Bill Nye will help you find yours. With his call to arms he wants you to examine every detail of the most difficult problems that look unsolvable that is, until you find the solution. Bill shows you how to develop critical thinking skills and create change, using his everything all at once approach that leaves no stone unturned.
Whether addressing climate change, the future of our society as a whole, personal success, or stripping away the mystery of fire walking, there are certain strategies that get results: looking at the world with relentless curiosity, being driven by a desire for a better future, and being willing to take the actions needed to make change happen. Moving through the lessons he learned as a full-time engineer at Boeing, a stand-up comedian, CEO of The Planetary Society, and of course, as Bill Nye The Science Guy, we'll learn how to tackle big problems the Bill Nye way.
We have the power to make real change. Join him in dare we say it changing the world.
--
Important signing details coming soon. Tickets on sale at this link.
Sunday, September 10, 7PM
at the UC Theater, 2036 University Ave in Berkeley
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
Everyone has an inner nerd just waiting to be awakened by the right passion. In Everything All at Once, Bill Nye will help you find yours. With his call to arms he wants you to examine every detail of the most difficult problems that look unsolvable that is, until you find the solution. Bill shows you how to develop critical thinking skills and create change, using his everything all at once approach that leaves no stone unturned.
Whether addressing climate change, the future of our society as a whole, personal success, or stripping away the mystery of fire walking, there are certain strategies that get results: looking at the world with relentless curiosity, being driven by a desire for a better future, and being willing to take the actions needed to make change happen. Moving through the lessons he learned as a full-time engineer at Boeing, a stand-up comedian, CEO of The Planetary Society, and of course, as Bill Nye The Science Guy, we'll learn how to tackle big problems the Bill Nye way.
We have the power to make real change. Join him in dare we say it changing the world.
--
Important signing details coming soon. Tickets on sale at this link.
MASHA GESSEN presents The Future is History
Monday, October 9, 7:30PM
at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. in Berkeley
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
A major new narrative nonfiction work by the bestselling author of Putin's biography and "one of the most important activists and journalists Russia has known in a generation” (David Remnick, The New Yorker), Masha Gessen's The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia is a cautionary tale for our time. Over the past three decades, Russia, having seemingly shed its Soviet incarnation for good and embarked on a journey toward democracy, devolved into a frightening retro-totalitarian state run by Putin with an iron fist. As Gessen writes, "The crackdown, the wars, and even Russia's reversion to type on the world stage are things that happened that I witnessed and I wanted to tell this story. But I also wanted to tell about what did not happen: the story of freedom that was not embraced and democracy that was not desired. How do you tell a story like that? Where do you locate reasons for the absences? When do you begin, and with whom?"
Gessen captures this pivotal era through the stories of several Russians whose lives spanned these decades; who blossomed with its embrace of unprecedented freedoms, then were crushed by its war on the very means by which they had come to understand themselves. By giving us the arc of these individual lives, The Future is History pushes past the abstractions and headlines, providing an illuminating, in-depth perspective on daily life under a regime that has turned on its own people.
--
Important signing details coming soon. Tickets on sale at this link.
Monday, October 9, 7:30PM
at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. in Berkeley
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
A major new narrative nonfiction work by the bestselling author of Putin's biography and "one of the most important activists and journalists Russia has known in a generation” (David Remnick, The New Yorker), Masha Gessen's The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia is a cautionary tale for our time. Over the past three decades, Russia, having seemingly shed its Soviet incarnation for good and embarked on a journey toward democracy, devolved into a frightening retro-totalitarian state run by Putin with an iron fist. As Gessen writes, "The crackdown, the wars, and even Russia's reversion to type on the world stage are things that happened that I witnessed and I wanted to tell this story. But I also wanted to tell about what did not happen: the story of freedom that was not embraced and democracy that was not desired. How do you tell a story like that? Where do you locate reasons for the absences? When do you begin, and with whom?"
Gessen captures this pivotal era through the stories of several Russians whose lives spanned these decades; who blossomed with its embrace of unprecedented freedoms, then were crushed by its war on the very means by which they had come to understand themselves. By giving us the arc of these individual lives, The Future is History pushes past the abstractions and headlines, providing an illuminating, in-depth perspective on daily life under a regime that has turned on its own people.
--
Important signing details coming soon. Tickets on sale at this link.
Enjoy our recent event with Rebecca Solnit and Jeff Chang:
[The Mother of All Questions]
Rebecca Solnit examines how women have been silenced and the changes occurring within the feminist movement today. She speaks with with author Jeff Chang.
