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X-WR-CALNAME:Silicon Valley Talks: Patrick McCray\, "README: A Bookish Hist
 ory of Computing from Electronic Brains to Everything Machines"
X-WR-TIMEZONE:Pacific Time (US & Canada)
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260908T030020Z
UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_50145729285008
DTSTART:20260122T000000Z
DTEND:20260122T010000Z
DESCRIPTION:Join the Silicon Valley Archives in welcoming Patrick McCray to
  talk about his latest book\, README: A Bookish History of Computing from 
 Electronic Brains to Everything Machines\, on January 21\, 2026\, at 4:00 
 p.m. \n\nIn README\, historian Patrick McCray argues that in order for com
 puters to become ubiquitous\, people first had to become interested in the
 m\, learn about them\, and take the machines seriously. A powerful catalys
 t for this transformation was\, ironically\, one of the oldest information
  technologies we have: books. The author uses a carefully chosen selection
  of books\, some iconic and others obscure\, to describe this technologica
 l revolution as it unfolded in the half century after 1945. The book begin
 s with a fundamental question: How does a new technology become well-known
  and widespread? McCray answers this by using books as a window into signi
 ficant moments in the history of computing\, books\, publishing\, and Amer
 ican culture.\n\nREADME offers a literary history of computers and\, more 
 broadly\, information technologies between World War II and the dot.com cr
 ash of the early twenty-first century. From the electronic brains and cybe
 rnetics craze of the 1940s to the birth of AI\, the rise of the personal c
 omputer\, and the Internet-driven financial frenzy of the 1990s\, books ha
 ve proven a durable and essential way for people to learn how to use and t
 hink about computers. By offering a readable half-century of bookish histo
 ry\, README explains how computers became popular and pervasive.
GEO:37.426631;-122.167086
LOCATION:Hohbach Hall\, 122
SUMMARY:Silicon Valley Talks: Patrick McCray\, "README: A Bookish History o
 f Computing from Electronic Brains to Everything Machines"
URL;VALUE=URI:https://events.stanford.edu/event/silicon-valley-talks-patric
 k-mccray-readme
CATEGORIES:Lecture/Presentation/Talk
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