Rapture For The Geeks

"Nimble and entertaining . . . A fascinating historical review of our longtime obsession with machines." -David Takami, Seattle Times In Rapture for the Geeks, Richard Dooling looks at what some of the greatest minds have to say about our roles in a future in which technology rapidly leaves us in the dust. Is the era of Singularity, when machines outthink humans, almost upon us? Will we be enslaved by our supercomputer overlords, as many sci-fi writers have wondered? Or will humans live lives of leisure with computers doing all the heavy lifting? With antic wit, fearless prescience, and common sense, Dooling provocatively examines nothing less than what it means to be human in what he playfully calls the age of B.S. (before Singularity)-and what life will be like when we are no longer alone with Mother Nature at Darwin's card table. "One doesn't expect a nonfiction book to be fascinating, chilling, thoughtful, and funny in equal measure. This one is."-Kurt Andersen "Dooling really is onto something here."-Ars Technica

About the Author :
RICHARD DOOLING is a novelist, screenwriter, and lawyer, a visiting professor at the University of Nebraska College of Law, and a frequent contributor to the New York Times. He is the author of Critical Care, Brainstorm, Bet Your Life, and the novel White Man's Grave, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with his wife, children, and computers. From the Hardcover edition.

Review :
Praise for Richard Dooling: Rapture for the Geeks "Nimble and entertaining . . . A fascinating historical review of our longtime obsession with machines." --David Takami, Seattle Times "Surprisingly engrossing, quick-witted." --New York Observer "One doesn't expect a nonfiction book to be fascinating, chilling, thoughtful, and funny in equal measure. This one is. My question: When computers become smarter than humans, and especially if they take over, will they regard Rick Dooling as dangerous, prescient, sympathetic . . . or irrelevant?" --Kurt Andersen "Dooling really is onto something here."-Ars Technica Bet Your Life "Manages to invoke Double Indemnity, the Old Testament, and Fountains of Wayne with equal vehemence and thriller wit. . . . If you're not hooked, you're one dead mackerel." --Entertainment Weekly "Fascinating . . . A socially relevant satire [that's] midway between John Grisham and Carl Hiaasen." --The New Yorker Brainstorm "Brainstorm is simply brilliant--hilarious, thought-provoking, and masterfully crafted. The characters are fantastic and irresistible but completely believable, and their banter is so witty and natural that a reader can forget they are debating ideas at the cutting edge of brain science and philosophy." --Steven Pinker, author of How the Mind Works "Exuberant . . . deeply pleasurable . . . Here is a whodunit that achieves a comic fugue-state mastery of the language of our sexually charged, violent, technocratic society." --Colin Harrison, New York Times Book Review Blue Streak: Swearing, Free Speech and Sexual Harassment "A charmingly impudent essay on language and sexual politics . . . an extremely clever and creative sort of literary acting out." --Richard Bernstein, New York Times White Man's Grave "A bravura display of satire . . . Dooling evokes the humane checks and balances of a deep world: the logic, you might say, of its magic." --Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times Book Review From the Hardcover edition.