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A joyously silly book full of impractical wisdom from a bygone era. As an artifact from the 1980s, it will steep you more firmly in the decade than a Netflix marathon of "Cheers" or "Dallas."

The most potent quality of this book is the respect afforded to the readers. The author's annotations are both succinct and useful.

In the end, a rather fantastic overview of a difficult subject to capture: computer networking and interaction. Both of these concepts are intangible so the author rightfully attempted to describe them through their human proponents. Waldrop does a commendable job of balancing a large cast of characters. Some contributors are inevitably overlooked, but it makes for a good introduction for deeper study.

This is a special book that captures a time not to long ago in human years, but ancient history in tech years - an era that I believe is woefully under-documented in comparison to the life and times of the personal computer.

Kidder takes a banal subject, the engineering of a minicomputer, and captures the heart behind the effort. It also manages to be an insight into management techniques and technical processes, but never gets bogged down in either one.

Kidder romances a little too much for my taste and sometimes it's difficult to keep track of the engineers and get a feel for their idiosyncrasies. However, it's probably the best book of its kind and his ability to tell a nimble story is superb.

It's a shame it was never completed. However, I love the "cliff hanger" ending which calls into question the way in which we model the world arithmetically in artificial system.

Fascinating, well researched graduate thesis published as a widely distributed book. Although it is not always concise, the information contained inside is a valuable look into the politics and culture that every powerful technology inherently embodies.

Excellent storytelling underpins the technical details that made Turing's paper such a stunning and important leap of imagination.