Power button : a history of pleasure, panic, and the politics of pushing / Rachel Plotnick.

By:

Plotnick, Rachel

text

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

9780262038232
0262038234

Subject(s):

LOC classification:

TJ213.5 .P568 2018

Contents:

Setting the stage -- Ringing for service -- Servants out of sight -- Distant effects -- We do the rest -- Let there be light -- What's a button good for? -- Anyone can push a button -- Push for your pleasure -- Conclusion.

Summary: Push a button and turn on the television; tap a button and get a ride; click a button and "like" something. The touch of a finger can set an appliance, a car, or a system in motion, even if the user doesn't understand the underlying mechanisms or algorithms. How did buttons become so ubiquitous? Why do people love them, loathe them, and fear them? In Power Button, Rachel Plotnick traces the origins of today's push-button society by examining how buttons have been made, distributed, used, rejected, and refashioned throughout history. Focusing on the period between 1880 and 1925, when "technologies of the hand" proliferated (including typewriters, telegraphs, and fingerprinting), Plotnick describes the ways that button pushing became a means for digital command, which promised effortless, discreet, and fool-proof control. Emphasizing the doubly digital nature of button pushing-as an act of the finger and a binary activity (on/off, up/down)-Plotnick suggests that the tenets of precomputational digital command anticipate contemporary ideas of computer users.

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Shelving location	Call number	Copy number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Book	NMC Library	Stacks	TJ213.5 .P568 2018 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Checked out	01/09/2025	33039001486462

Browsing NMC Library shelves, Shelving location: Stacks Close shelf browser (Hides shelf browser)

Previous								Next
Previous	TJ211.49 .M37 2015 Machines of loving grace : the quest for common ground between humans and robots /	TJ211.49 .R6222 2017 Robot ethics 2.0 : from autonomous cars to artifical intelligence /	TJ211.495 .M56 2015 Our robots, ourselves : robotics and the myths of autonomy /	TJ213.5 .P568 2018 Power button : a history of pleasure, panic, and the politics of pushing /	TJ230 .S8235 1996 Standard handbook of machine design /	TJ243 .I45 2005 Machine devices and components illustrated sourcebook /	TJ250 .G73 2022 Engines : the inner workings of machines that move the world /	Next

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Push a button and turn on the television; tap a button and get a ride; click a button and "like" something. The touch of a finger can set an appliance, a car, or a system in motion, even if the user doesn't understand the underlying mechanisms or algorithms. How did buttons become so ubiquitous? Why do people love them, loathe them, and fear them? In Power Button, Rachel Plotnick traces the origins of today's push-button society by examining how buttons have been made, distributed, used, rejected, and refashioned throughout history. Focusing on the period between 1880 and 1925, when "technologies of the hand" proliferated (including typewriters, telegraphs, and fingerprinting), Plotnick describes the ways that button pushing became a means for digital command, which promised effortless, discreet, and fool-proof control. Emphasizing the doubly digital nature of button pushing-as an act of the finger and a binary activity (on/off, up/down)-Plotnick suggests that the tenets of precomputational digital command anticipate contemporary ideas of computer users.

There are no comments on this title.

to post a comment.