Delivery included to the United States

How to Speak Machine Laws of Design for a Digital Age

Paperback (21 Nov 2019)

Not available for sale

Out of stock

This service is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Other formats & editions

New
Paperback (20 May 2025) RRP $31.45 $21.62

Publisher's Synopsis

John Maeda is one of the world's preeminent thinkers on technology and design, and in How to Speak Machine, he offers a set of simple laws that govern not only the computers of today, but the unimaginable machines of the future.

Machines are already more powerful than we can comprehend, and getting more powerful at an exponential pace. Once set in motion, algorithms never tire. And when a program's size, speed and endlessness combine with its ability to learn and transform itself, the outcome can be unpredictable and dangerous. Take the seemingly instant transformation of Microsoft's chatbot into a hate-spewing racist, or how crime-predicting algorithms reinforce racial bias.

How To Speak Machine provides a coherent framework for today's product designers, business leaders and policymakers to grasp this brave new world. Drawing on his wide-ranging experience from engineering to computer science to design, Maeda shows how businesses and individuals can identify opportunities afforded by technology to make world-changing and inclusive products while avoiding the pitfalls inherent to the medium.

About the Publisher

Portfolio Penguin

The first ten paperback Penguin books appeared in 1935 costing 6d each (the price of a packet of cigarettes). Since then the Penguin list has developed enormously, but still aims to bring the best writing to the widest possible audience. Penguin Paperbacks now range from Booker Prize-winning contemporary authors, to mass market bestsellers, with successful history, biography and general non-fiction as well.

Book information

ISBN: 9780241976630
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint: Portfolio Penguin
Pub date:
DEWEY: 658.5752
DEWEY edition: 23
Language: English
Number of pages: 240
Weight: 244g
Height: 134mm
Width: 215mm
Spine width: 22mm