{"product_id":"the-software-arts-warren-sack-9780262039703","title":"The Software Arts","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn alternative history of software that places the liberal arts at the very center of software's evolution.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Software Arts\u003c\/i\u003e, Warren Sack offers an alternative history of computing that places the arts at the very center of software's evolution. Tracing the origins of software to eighteenth-century French encyclopedists' step-by-step descriptions of how things were made in the workshops of artists and artisans, Sack shows that programming languages are the offspring of an effort to describe the mechanical arts in the language of the liberal arts. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSack offers a reading of the texts of computing--code, algorithms, and technical papers--that emphasizes continuity between prose and programs. He translates concepts and categories from the liberal and mechanical arts--including logic, rhetoric, grammar, learning, algorithm, language, and simulation--into terms of computer science and then considers their further translation into popular culture, where they circulate as forms of digital life. He considers, among other topics, the \"arithmetization\" of knowledge that presaged digitization; today's multitude of logics; the history of demonstration, from deduction to newer forms of persuasion; and the post-Chomsky absence of meaning in grammar. With \u003ci\u003eThe Software Arts\u003c\/i\u003e, Sack invites artists and humanists to see how their ideas are at the root of software and invites computer scientists to envision themselves as artists and humanists.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Warren Sack\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0262039702\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780262039703\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e MIT Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/09\/2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 400\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 2.10lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 7.00w x 1.30d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/01\/2019","brand":"Warren Sack","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":43946372366591,"sku":"9780262039703","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_83677f7c-6f46-4b94-bae2-e0a277982e77.jpg?v=1681512773","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-software-arts-warren-sack-9780262039703","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}