10/24/2016
Auerswald, associate professor of public policy at George Mason University, ambitiously provides a 40,000-year history of human productivity, from the simple to the complex, in his sophisticated study. He calls this progression “the advance of code” and focuses on how abstract concepts—code—are turned into actual things. Auerswald asserts that we cannot “understand the dynamics of the economy—its past or its future—without an understanding of code.” His interpretation of code ranges from the obvious (computer code) to the less so (cooking recipes). He seeks to even out the imbalance in the way economics is currently taught, focusing on “code and production” as well as “choice and consumption.” Auerswald offers up three key ideas: the creation and refinement of code is an essential human activity, progress in developing code is what drives the economy, and these developments produce not just new products but new ways of seeing and experiencing the world. He divides the book into three sections: “The Advance of Code,” which examines the past and how code has evolved; “Code Economics,” which explores economic studies; and “The Human Advantage,” which looks at the relationship between code and human experience. Those who study the field of economics will find Auerswald’s arguments to be cogent and sound. (Feb.)
Code is the "how" of human productive activity. The creation, implementation, and refinement of code have been the infrastructure of human progress from Neolithic simplicity to modern complexity. In a sweeping narrative that takes readers from the production of Stone Age axes, to the invention of chocolate chip cookies, to the experience of Burning Man, Philip Auerswald argues that the key driver of human history is the advance of code. At each major stage in the advance of code over the span of centuries, shifts in the structure of society have challenged we human beings to reinvent not only how we work, but who we are. We are at one of those stages now. The Code Economy offers an indispensable guide to the future, based on a narrative stretching forty-thousand years into the past.
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The Code Economy: A Forty-Thousand Year History
Code is the "how" of human productive activity. The creation, implementation, and refinement of code have been the infrastructure of human progress from Neolithic simplicity to modern complexity. In a sweeping narrative that takes readers from the production of Stone Age axes, to the invention of chocolate chip cookies, to the experience of Burning Man, Philip Auerswald argues that the key driver of human history is the advance of code. At each major stage in the advance of code over the span of centuries, shifts in the structure of society have challenged we human beings to reinvent not only how we work, but who we are. We are at one of those stages now. The Code Economy offers an indispensable guide to the future, based on a narrative stretching forty-thousand years into the past.
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Product Details
BN ID: | 2940170836291 |
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Publisher: | Recorded Books, LLC |
Publication date: | 02/22/2017 |
Edition description: | Unabridged |
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