Words and Power: Computers, Language, and U.S. Cold War Values
暫譯: 語言與權力：電腦、語言與美國冷戰價值觀

Longo, Bernadette

Words and Power: Computers, Language, and U.S. Cold War Values
  • 出版商: Springer
  • 出版日期: 2021-07-27
  • 售價: $1,780
  • 貴賓價: 9.5 折 $1,691
  • 語言: 英文
  • 頁數: 143
  • 裝訂: Hardcover - also called cloth, retail trade, or trade
  • ISBN: 303070372X
  • ISBN-13: 9783030703721

    • 海外代購書籍(需單獨結帳)

相關主題

商品描述

When viewed through a political lens, the act of defining terms in natural language arguably transforms knowledge into values. This unique volume explores how corporate, military, academic, and professional values shaped efforts to define computer terminology and establish an information engineering profession as a precursor to what would become computer science.

As the Cold War heated up, U.S. federal agencies increasingly funded university researchers and labs to develop technologies, like the computer, that would ensure that the U.S. maintained economic prosperity and military dominance over the Soviet Union. At the same time, private corporations saw opportunities for partnering with university labs and military agencies to generate profits as they strengthened their business positions in civilian sectors. They needed a common vocabulary and principles of streamlined communication to underpin the technology development that would ensure national prosperity and military dominance.

  • investigates how language standardization contributed to the professionalization of computer science as separate from mathematics, electrical engineering, and physics
  • examines traditions of language standardization in earlier eras of rapid technology development around electricity and radio
  • highlights the importance of the analogy of "the computer is like a human" to early explanations of computer design and logic
  • traces design and development of electronic computers within political and economic contexts
  • foregrounds the importance of human relationships in decisions about computer design

This in-depth humanistic study argues for the importance of natural language in shaping what people come to think of as possible and impossible relationships between computers and humans. The work is a key reference in the history of technology and serves as a source textbook on the human-level history of computing. In addition, it addresses those with interests in sociolinguistic questions around technology studies, as well as technology development at the nexus of politics, business, and human relations.

商品描述(中文翻譯)

當從政治的角度來看，定義自然語言中的術語的行為可以說是將知識轉化為價值觀。本書探討了企業、軍事、學術和專業價值觀如何影響對計算機術語的定義以及建立信息工程專業，這是計算機科學的前身。

隨著冷戰的加劇，美國聯邦機構越來越多地資助大學研究人員和實驗室開發技術，例如計算機，以確保美國在經濟繁榮和軍事優勢上超越蘇聯。與此同時，私營企業看到了與大學實驗室和軍事機構合作的機會，以在加強其在民用部門的商業地位的同時獲取利潤。他們需要一個共同的詞彙和精簡溝通的原則，以支持技術開發，確保國家的繁榮和軍事優勢。

- 探討語言標準化如何促進計算機科學的專業化，使其與數學、電氣工程和物理學區分開來
- 檢視早期快速技術發展時代（如電力和無線電）的語言標準化傳統
- 突出「計算機就像人類」的類比對於早期計算機設計和邏輯解釋的重要性
- 在政治和經濟背景下追溯電子計算機的設計和開發
- 強調人際關係在計算機設計決策中的重要性

這項深入的人文研究主張自然語言在塑造人們對計算機與人類之間可能和不可能關係的看法中具有重要性。本書是技術史上的重要參考資料，並作為計算機人類歷史的教科書來源。此外，它還針對對技術研究中的社會語言學問題以及政治、商業和人際關係交匯處的技術發展感興趣的讀者。

作者簡介

Bernadette Longo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities at New Jersey Institute of Technology. She is also the author of the books Edmund Berkeley and the Social Responsibility of Computer Professionals (2015), Spurious Coin: Science, Management, and a History of Technical Writing (2000), and the IEEE Guide to Writing in the Engineering and Technical Fields (2017). Among her other publications, she is co-editor of Critical Power Tools: Technical Communication and Cultural Studies (2006) and Transnational Research in Technical Communication: Realities and Reflections (forthcoming). Dr. Longo is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and serves on the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) History Committee.

作者簡介(中文翻譯)

伯納黛特·朗戈（Bernadette Longo）是新澤西理工學院人文學系的副教授。她也是書籍《艾德蒙·伯克利與電腦專業人士的社會責任》（Edmund Berkeley and the Social Responsibility of Computer Professionals，2015年）、《虛假貨幣：科學、管理與技術寫作的歷史》（Spurious Coin: Science, Management, and a History of Technical Writing，2000年）以及《IEEE 工程與技術領域寫作指南》（IEEE Guide to Writing in the Engineering and Technical Fields，2017年）的作者。在她的其他出版物中，她是《關鍵力量工具：技術溝通與文化研究》（Critical Power Tools: Technical Communication and Cultural Studies，2006年）和《技術溝通中的跨國研究：現實與反思》（Transnational Research in Technical Communication: Realities and Reflections，待出版）的共同編輯。朗戈博士是電氣與電子工程師學會（IEEE）的資深會員，並在計算機協會（ACM）歷史委員會任職。

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