How to Speak Machine: Computational Thinking for the Rest of Us

by John Maeda

Overview

A simple, enduring framework for understanding the complex world of AI and machine learning.

“Before you can get machines to do what you want, you’d better learn to speak their language. John Maeda engineers rapprochement between humans and our computational creations in this engaging, enlightening book.”

—Douglas Rushkoff, author of Team Human

As the capabilities of AI and language models like ChatGPT continue to advance, it is more important than ever to understand the implications and potential pitfalls of these technologies.

In this book, John Maeda draws on his extensive experience as one of the world's preeminent interdisciplinary thinkers on technology and design to provide actionable guidance for businesses, product designers, and policymakers.

Using thoughtful explorations and occasionally whimsical examples, he identifies a framework that describes the key capabilities and pitfalls of any machine learning system, and offers a vision for how they can be used to create inclusive and world-changing products.

This is essential reading for anyone seeking a high-level understanding of how machines “think” and what the future may hold.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399564420
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/19/2019
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	677,618
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

John Maeda is an American technologist, designer, engineer, artist, investor, author, and teacher. He is currently VP of design and artificial intelligence at Microsoft. Previously he has held positions with Publicis Sapient, the technology marketing and delivery arm of Publiciis, Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, and the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. He also led research at the MIT Media Lab, and served as president of the Rhode Island School of Design. Named as one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st Century by Esquire, Maeda draws on his diverse background as an MIT-trained engineer, award-winning designer, and executive leader to bring people and ideas together at scale. He is the author of several celebrated books, including The Laws of Simplicity and Redesigning Leadership. He has appeared as a speaker all over the world, from Davos to Beijing to São Paulo to New York, and his talks for TED.com have received millions of views. He was born, raised, and lives in the United States of America.

Editorial Reviews

10/14/2019

Reminiscing on a 30-year career in technology and art, Maeda (Redesigning Leadership), former president of the Rhode Island School of Design, offers some worthwhile but scattered insights into navigating the digital age. To explain how to “speak machine,” he uses classic mathematical graphics to illustrate computing’s finer points; for instance, the Koch snowflakes are used to explain that “computation has a unique affinity for infinity, and for things that can be let to continue forever.” To show “what digital consciousness can feel like,” he describes his 1993 Kyoto art installation where people in a disco club posed as computer parts. Maeda chatters nostalgically about his first computer (an Apple II), the basic programs he wrote while in high school to help his parents manage their tofu shop in Seattle, and about attending MIT in the mid-1980s. He refers critically, but only glancingly, to the “despots and other power mongers” who would use social media “to impact millions of minds... with just a few destructive keystrokes.” Perhaps most affectingly, he envisions a future populated by countless numbers of computers in windowless high-rises becoming “better collaborators with each other than we ourselves could ever be.” Given Maeda’s vast experience, readers may wish his fitfully intriguing ramble had more thoroughly anatomized the grim future he envisions. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

This book is mind-expanding. Not everyone needs to understand how to program a computer, but understanding how computers ‘think’ is no longer optional.”
—Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media and bestselling author of WTF?
 
“People who are fluent in ‘machine’ shape how technology benefits and burdens each of us. Making that language, and power, more accessible begins with this book.”
—Kat Holmes, UX director at Google and author of Mismatch
 
“Dazzling, unique, and radical. How to Speak Machine is like nothing I’ve ever read. It will rewire your brain (in a good way). A must-read for anyone looking to shape the future.”
—Jake Knapp, New York Times bestselling author of Sprint
 
“John Maeda has written an entertaining, thought-provoking, and relatable guide for people who want to better understand design and computing, and the inextricable relationship between the two. He breaks down complex concepts and presents them in a way that is approachable and artful. I am thrilled to have How to Speak Machine in my toolkit as I work to level the playing field in the tech industry.”
—Jewel Burks Solomon, tech entrepreneur
 
“Not a surprise, coming from John Maeda, this book is concise, eye-opening, approachable, constructive, and a necessary learning experience for anybody wishing to make the best of our contemporary world. It is the inscription, however, that says it all: only by embracing what makes us deeply human will we be able to find true companions—among humans and machines alike.”
—Paola Antonelli, senior curator in MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design and founding director of MoMA Research & Development
 
“Loved, loved, loved this book, even though the title is wrong. It is not about machines; it’s about philosophy, design, humanity, and our future. Buy it, devour it, gift it to those you care for.”
—Juan Enriquez, bestselling author of As the Future Catches You and coauthor of Evolving Ourselves
 
“How to Speak Machine is an all-encompassing tour of the computational realm. John Maeda’s delight and wonder, along with his cautionary wisdom, are exactly what we all need when thinking through the many implications for what happens when the worlds of machines and humans intersect.”
—Sam Arbesman, author of Overcomplicated
 
“Before you can get machines to do what you want, you’d better learn to speak their language. John Maeda engineers rapprochement between humans and our computational creations in this engaging, enlightening book.”
—Douglas Rushkoff, author of Team Human
 
“A book with as much to teach about human behavior as it does technology. Riveting and important.”
—Emily Chang, Bloomberg TV Host and bestselling author of Brotopia

“You can always count on John Maeda to be different in a way that is provocative, fascinating, and inspiring, and in his new book, How to Speak Machine, all these talents are on prominent display.”
—Don Norman, author of The Design of Everyday Things

“Artful and insightful, this book reveals the hidden beauty in the code bridging humans and machines.”  
—Rolf Dobelli, author of The Art of Thinking Clearly

From the Publisher