As part of our end-of-the-year tradition, we’ve put together a brief list of tech books published in 2022 to help you understand the world we live in.
The books on this year’s list deal with topics such as microchip technology, social media networks, shareware, and Star Trek. (The descriptions are excerpted from the publishers’ websites.)
Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making
By Tony Fadell
Every chapter of Build is designed to help readers with a problem they're facing right now — how to get funding for their startup, whether to quit their job or not, or just how to deal with the jerk in the next cubicle. (Harper Business)
Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology
By Chris Miller
An epic account of the decades-long battle to control what has emerged as the world’s most critical resource — microchip technology — with the United States and China increasingly in conflict. (Simon and Schuster)
The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World
By Max Fisher
The gripping story of how social networks create the algorithms that drive everyday users to extreme opinions and, increasingly, extreme actions. (Little, Brown)
The Climate Book: The Facts and the Solutions
By Greta Thunberg
Climate activist Greta Thunberg has gathered the wisdom of over one hundred experts to equip us all with the knowledge we need to combat climate disaster. “We are alive at the most decisive time in the history of humanity. Together, we can do the seemingly impossible. But it has to be us, and it has to be now.” (Penguin Random House; U.S. release 2/14/23)
The History of the Computer: People, Inventions, and Technology that Changed Our World
By Rachel Ignotofsky
A strikingly illustrated overview of the computing machines that have changed our world — from the abacus to the smartphone — and the people who made them. (Penguin Random House)
Making Videogames: The Art of Creating Digital Worlds
By Duncan Harris, Alex Wiltshire
Illustrated with arresting images, this book explores the unique alchemy of technical and artistic endeavors involved in creating videogames. (Thames & Hudson)
Phasers on Stun!: How the Making (and Remaking) of Star Trek Changed the World
By Ryan Britt
This book charts an entertaining course through Star Trek history — from its groundbreaking origins amid the tumultuous 1960s, to its influence on diversifying the space program, to its contemporary history. (Penguin Random House)
The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future
By Sebastian Mallaby
The extreme ratio of success and failure forms the power law that drives the venture capital business, all of Silicon Valley, the wider tech sector, and, by extension, the world. (Penguin Press)
Shareware Heroes: The Renegades Who Redefined Gaming at the Dawn of the Internet
By Richard Moss
This is the story of the games and developers who relied on nascent networking technologies combined with word-of-mouth marketing in an era before social media. (Unbound)
"You Are Not Expected to Understand This": How 26 Lines of Code Changed the World
By Torie Bosch (Editor), Kelly Chudler (Illustrator), Ellen Ullman (Introduction)
Torie Bosch brings together many of today’s leading technology experts to provide new perspectives on the code that shapes our lives. (Princeton University Press)
As always, in the spirit of open source and community, please consider supporting your local bookshop.
See also:
10 Tech Books for 2020
11 Tech Books for 2021
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