Edmund Berkeley and the Social Responsibility of Computer Professionals.

Edmund Berkeley and the Social Responsibility of Computer Professionals.

1st ed.

9781970001372
9781970001365

San Rafael : Association for Computing Machinery, 2015.

©2015.

English

1 online resource (223 pages).

004.092

This book is the first full-length biography of Edmund Berkeley, a computer pioneer and social activist who has been called "the conscience of the computer industry." Through his work with other early computer developers, he became aware of the potential dangers of these machines to society at large. He believed that computer developers had an obligation to address the complex social problems facing a Cold War world; the threat of suicidal nuclear war and the ethics of computer professionals using their expertise to build self-guided weapons systems. This is an historical narrative of a man ultimately in favor of engineering peace, instead of war, and how his career was ultimately damaged by politicians determined to portray him as a Communist sympathizer. Berkeley's life work provides a lens to understand social and political issues surrounding the early development of electronic computers which ties directly to current debates about the use of autonomous intelligent systems. This entertaining biography offers a humanistic approach to understanding technology and society via the successes and trials of Edmund Berkeley, a founding member of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM). Telling Berkeley's story provides a more nuanced and dimensional picture of how the computers we use today came into being and why we ask the questions we do about our relationships with them. It explores ways in which Berkeley's life illuminates issues we still deal with regarding the social responsibilities of computer developers and human-computer relationships.

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