Close to the Machine: Technophilia and Its Discontents
Ellen Ullman's humane, insightful, and beautifully written memoir is a cult classic exploring the ever-complicating intersections between people and technology. Writing from 1990s San Francisco, where she ran a programming business that served everyone from credit card companies to AIDS clinics, she describes the strange ecstasies of programming and the even stranger social dynamics of the emerging California tech world, where she crosses paths with the men and women of the emerging internet: sleeping with them, competing with them, trying to get them to debug her systems and decode her desires. Equally evocative of the messiness of life and the artful efficiency of code, Close to the Machine is a deeply personal, prescient account of working at the forefront of computing.
Author: Ellen Ullman (Author)
Format: Paperback, 208 pages, 129mm x 198mm
Published: 2025, Pushkin Press, United Kingdom
Genre: Autobiography: Business
Description
Ellen Ullman's humane, insightful, and beautifully written memoir is a cult classic exploring the ever-complicating intersections between people and technology. Writing from 1990s San Francisco, where she ran a programming business that served everyone from credit card companies to AIDS clinics, she describes the strange ecstasies of programming and the even stranger social dynamics of the emerging California tech world, where she crosses paths with the men and women of the emerging internet: sleeping with them, competing with them, trying to get them to debug her systems and decode her desires. Equally evocative of the messiness of life and the artful efficiency of code, Close to the Machine is a deeply personal, prescient account of working at the forefront of computing.
Close to the Machine: Technophilia and Its Discontents