Technology Books

A conversation with the economist, educator, omnivore, polymath and co-founder of Marginal Revolution, highlighting books about decentralised information, mass collaboration and spontaneous order

There's an unseen, mostly unacknowledged cyber war going on. British journalist Misha Glenny, author of Dark Market, tells us who's involved, how far it spreads and what could happen if we let it continue unchecked. He picks the best books to get a better handle on cybersecurity.

The Professor of Internet Regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute selects books on how memories are made and discusses the effect of digital data storage on our perception of the present and the future

These days robotic technology is developing so fast that sci-fi is having a hard time keeping up, says best-selling author and roboticist, Daniel H Wilson. He picks the best books on robotics.

The history professor and author of Too Much to Know tells us what researchers have been discovering about how earlier human societies collected, organised and used information

As we approach the centenary of Alan Turing’s birth, science historian George Dyson looks back at the achievements of wartime code breaking and the “human computers” who enabled our modern age of iPhones and laptops

Video games have never been more popular – or more intricately designed. But we haven't yet developed the vocabulary to analyse a game's impact the way we do a film's, says professor of computational media Katherine Isbister. Here, she chooses five of the best books that explore the art of video game design, and the subcultures that grow up around them.

The book critic and technology columnist for Time magazine says there's a level on which the Internet is a mass tool for pacification. It allows people to play out their lives in a fantasy context, which is very politically unthreatening. He picks the best books on the World Wide Web.

The historian explains how the power of technology has affected man’s relationship with the rest of nature, and tells us what determines why some civilisations succeed and others fail

The science writer says we are obsessively pessimistic for no good reason. Our innate ability to innovate with technology is what will  ultimately save us from disaster