Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Preface ix
4. Introduction 1
5. 1. The First Line of Code 13
6. 2. Monte Carlo Algorithms: Random Numbers in Computing from the H-Bomb to Today 19
7. 3. Jean Sammet and the Code That Runs the World 25
8. 4. Spacewar: Collaborative Coding and the Rise of Gaming Culture 31
9. 5. BASIC and the Illusion of Coding Empowerment 38
10. 6. The First Email: The Code That Connected Us Online 44
11. 7. The Police Beat Algorithm: The Code That Launched Computational Policing and Modern Racial Profiling 49
12. 8. “Apollo 11, Do Bailout” 56
13. 9. The Most Famous Comment in Unix History: “You Are Not Expected to Understand This” 63
14. 10. The Accidental Felon 69
15. 11. Internet Relay Chat: From Fish-Slap to LOL 75
16. 12. Hyperlink: The Idea That Led to Another, and Another, and Another 81
17. 13. JPEG: The Unsung Hero in the Digital Revolution 86
18. 14. The Viral Internet Image You’ve Never Seen 91
19. 15. The Pop-Up Ad: The Code That Made the Internet Worse 96
20. 16. Wear This Code, Go to Jail 102
21. 17. Needles in the World’s Biggest Haystack: The Algorithm That Ranked the Internet 108
22. 18. A Failure to Interoperate: The Lost Mars Climate Orbiter 113
23. 19. The Code That Launched a Million Cat Videos 119
24. 20. Nakamoto’s Prophecy: Bitcoin and the Revolution in Trust 124
25. 21. The Curse of the Awesome Button 131
26. 22. The Bug No One Was Responsible For—Until Everyone Was 139
27. 23. The Volkswagen Emissions Scandal: How Digital Systems Can Be Used to Cheat 145
28. 24 The Code That Brought a Language Online 151
29. 25. Telegram: The Platform That Became “the Internet” in Iran 156
30. 26. Encoding Gender 162
31. Acknowledgments 169
32. Notes 171
33. Contributors 189
34. Index 195