"Life in Code: A Personal History of Technology," by Ellen Ullman

I am not a particularly “techie” person (OK, that is an understatement), but when my friend BE gave me a copy of her friend Ellen Ullman’s new book, “Life in Code: A Personal History of Technology” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017), a collection of essays, I happily embarked on reading it, as I knew Ullman to be a good writer. She was one of the earlier computer programmers and software engineers, starting in 1978, and one of the rare women in those fields back then (and, unfortunately, the situation is not a whole lot better now). Before writing this book, she had already written a memoir, “Close to the Machine,” about her life as a software engineer early on, along with other books and essays about the world of technology. (She also writes fiction.) Her gift in those publications and in this one is to “translate” that world into terms that even those of us not gifted or very knowledgeable in the area, or even particularly interested in the area, can not only understand but also enjoy. The back flap of the current book says her work describes “the social, emotional, and personal effects of technology,” and that pretty much sums it up. I learned so much from this book, and at the same time, admired and savored the wonderful, sometimes even poetic, writing. Ullman helped me expand my knowledge and understanding of the world of technology and the people who develop and work on computers, the Internet, and more. She shows us the delicate balance between the human factors and personalities, on the one hand, and the mechanical/technological factors on the other. The topics she writes about here include the pleasures of being in quiet isolation with the machine and its codes, free to focus utterly on these; the Y2K drama; robots; sexism in the world of programming and technology; social class aspects of who has access to technology, knowledge about technology, and high level technology jobs; technology and education; the benefits of, and problems with, online classes; the dangers of ever-increasing surveillance through technology, and the ensuing erosion of privacy; and the sometimes unfortunate changes that have occurred in her (and my) beloved San Francisco due to the tech revolution. She is always thoughtful and fair-minded, attempting to see and acknowledge all sides of an issue or concern. In a sense, she is a philosopher of technology and the current world, as well as an excellent writer who elucidates the issues in an understandable, relatable, and thought-provoking way.