Coding: the Quiet Influencers Li Gong Lauds a Study of Software Developers Whose Intricate Work Shapes Our World

Coders participate in the TechCrunch Disrupt London hackathon in 2015.

TECHNOLOGY Coding: the quiet influencers Li Gong lauds a study of software developers whose intricate work shapes our world.

n the late 1980s, Mark Weiser — then During the War explains why coders don’t like using a mouse, chief technologist at famed US research of American Inde- and prefer keyboard shortcuts (pointing and laboratory Xerox PARC — coined the pendence in the late clicking requires an inefficient use of hand Iterm “ubiquitous computing”. That is now a eighteenth century, movement and extra eye coordination). We reality. A typical home in a wealthier country for example, govern- meet coder Jason Ho, who, when planning might contain between 50 and 100 micro- ance of the fledgling to try a city’s top noodle restaurants, writes processors, in everything from televisions nation was based on a a program to map the shortest path to each, and refrigerators to mobile phones and set of laws that started so that he can visit as many as possible. We pet ID tags. And each relies on the diligent from first principles: watch Rob Rhinehart, who regards eating humans who crank out millions of lines the Constitution. The as a waste of time and developed a meal Coders: The VIA GETTY MACGREGOR/BLOOMBERG LUKE of software code — ultimately driving our legal profession thus Making of a New replacement called Soylent (borrowed from emotions, dictating our behaviour and even came to dominate Tribe and the Harry Harrison’s 1966 science-fiction novel distorting presidential elections. civil discourse. (In a Remaking of the Make Room! Make Room!) as “the ultimately In Coders, Clive Thompson urges us to pay sense, the Founding World optimized meal”. We hear from a coder who closer attention to this largely hidden force Fathers might be seen CLIVE THOMPSON breaks up with his girlfriend by saying: “I Penguin Press (2019) — who its members are, how they think and as the coders of their don’t have enough data.” what impacts they have on us and on soci- time, writing the operating system, or at least Thompson spends half of the book on ety. They are, he writes, “among the most the kernel, of US democracy.) By the same such personal traits, behavioural patterns quietly influential people on the planet”. The token, civil engineers, architects and urban and coder psychologies. These could have figures he interviewed for the book include planners became decision makers during come across as hoary stereotypes, but what the creators of many of the notable software the Industrial Revolution. The hour has now Thompson does differently is to get really applications we use today — such as Face- come for coders. close to the people he writes about: it’s the book, Twitter and Instagram. Thompson, The book is fascinating. Thompson is an narrative equivalent of Technicolor, 3D and a technology journalist who writes regu- excellent writer and his subjects are them- the microscope. Although characteristics larly for The New York Times Magazine and selves gripping. He argues that coders are, as such as curiosity, logical thinking, precision- Wired, was motivated by his observation a rule, optimists who spend the vast majority seeking and pedantry are also common in that, throughout history, some professions of their working time not writing new code, professions including law, medicine, finance have suddenly become crucial and exerted but debugging: they need to stay hopeful and sports, a high percentage of coders com- an outsized influence on our society. to overcome the endless frustration. He bine these attributes; it is probably this that

BOOKS & ARTS COMMENT

makes coding stand out. Thompson also explores more serious and controversial aspects of the profession. Books in brief He analyses political leanings, finding that although coders seem to have an affinity for Making Eden libertarian ideals, many adhere to a blend of David Beerling Oxford University Press (2019) left and right. He extensively discusses diver- Some 2 billion years ago, a single-celled organism in Earth’s primeval sity (especially gender) — or the lack of it ocean engulfed a mitochondrion and a cyanobacterium — and, now — in computing as a whole, and chronicles able to generate energy and photosynthesize, shunted off to change the the sharp decline in the number of women world. The ancestor of green plants had begun its journey. Ferns, forests participating in coding over the past dec- and grasses ultimately furred our planet’s stony surface, sculpting land ades. He passionately debunks the idea that and climate and paving the way for animals. This wonderful study by coding is a meritocracy, citing education and palaeobotanist David Beerling teems with current research on plants’ luck as key factors contributing to success. evolution, genomes and ancient alliances with fungi. A vivid corrective He also digs deep into hacker culture and to “deep-rooted zoo-chauvinism” in thinking about life on Earth. cyberpunk; the ‘crypto wars’ in which gov- ernments have tried to limit access to strong cryptography techniques; and issues of copy- Wild Sea right and privacy. Joy McCann University of Chicago Press (2019) Thompson also looks at more contem- Wilderness seekers will rejoice in this stirring portrait of Earth’s most porary topics, such as racial bias in artificial remote sea: the Southern Ocean. Environmental historian Joy McCann intelligence. And he explores social media’s reveals how the vast circumpolar churn of ice, wind, waters and fog negative impact on society and democracy. flowing north of Antarctica has illuminated understanding of climate For example, Facebook’s news feed inad- change. For centuries, scientists and explorers from James Cook and vertently aided misinformation campaigns Charles Darwin to Isobel Bennett have battled ferocious conditions during the 2016 US presidential election to map the region, probe its weather and study iconic species such (see A. Klimburg Nature 562, 188–189; as elephant seals, giant kelp and emperor penguins. McCann deftly 2018). Even more ominous is our depend- navigates both natural glories and archival complexities. ence on information technology, from algo- rithmic recommendations for news feeds to electronic voting systems that opaquely Losing Earth calculate winners. The smooth functioning Nathaniel Rich MCD/Farrar, Straus & Giroux (2019) of the world depends on coders writing solid There was a point four decades ago, writes Nathaniel Rich, when the and secure code, but that is neither sufficient science on climate change nearly sparked a US energy revolution. nor guaranteed. A few years after, the seeds of denialism were sown. Rich brilliantly Many books have covered this territory, relates the story of how, in 1979, a loose alliance — including but Coders is bang up to date in a fast- environmental lobbyist Rafe Pomerance, climate researchers Gordon moving world. We meet some of the field’s MacDonald and oceanographer Carl Wunsch — alerted policymakers biggest players, such as BitTorrent inventor to the existential threat, only to see climate treaties fail in a welter of Bram Cohen. Furthermore, by combining ‘profit over planet’ a decade later. An eloquent science history, and an his own research with material from copious urgent eleventh-hour call to save what can be saved. sources in print and online, Thompson has unearthed some delightful details, such as a T-shirt reading “Think Bad. Do Good” Experiencing the Impossible (which can mean, for instance, that to write Gustav Kuhn MIT Press (2019) a secure system, you have to know how ‘bad Flummoxed by a fiendish card trick? You’re not alone: magic guys’ might try to break in). continues to astonish many, well into adulthood. In this absorbing As a computer scientist and former coder, study, psychologist-magician Gustav Kuhn reveals that magic creates I found that many passages elicited a quiet cognitive conflict, so that perceiving an ‘impossible’ event bewitches smile and a moment of self-recognition. us. He trawls its history (from Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin’s People who interact with coders routinely, astounding 1840s ‘ethereal levitation’ trick to stage hypnosis); shows as colleagues, friends or family, could benefit how the misdirection of attention, say, plays with the peculiarities of tremendously from these insights. I can our visual systems and memories; and proposes a science of magic. imagine chief executives ordering bundles A fascinating foray into the subtle mechanics of creating wonder. of this book for employees. Interestingly, coders might get even more out of the book. They already know the tech- The Nocturnal Brain nical terms, would appreciate the analogies Guy Leschziner Simon & Schuster (2019) (“refactoring software is like editing an Consultant neurologist Guy Leschziner specializes in sleep article”) and would perhaps understand disorders: lucid dreaming, narcolepsy, insomnia, sleep paralysis and themselves a little better. Perhaps they’ll give other conditions sparked by neurological, environmental, genetic it to loved ones, with a note attached: “Read and psychological factors. With compassion and acuity, he delves this, that’s me!” ■ into patients’ nocturnal hallucinations, out-of-sync circadian clocks, and even episodes of driving during slumber. He explicates the Li Gong is chief executive of Linaro, a known science, and discusses theories and treatments critically, but software company based in Cambridge, UK. this is a narrative that inevitably circles back to the heavy human e-mail: [email protected] cost of lost sleep and disrupted dreams. Barbara Kiser