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Code to Joy

Code to Joy

Why Everyone Should Learn a Little Programming

by Michael L. Littman

$27.95 Paperback

232 pp., 6 x 9 in, 21 b&w illus.

Paperback
9780262546393
Published: October 3, 2023
Publisher: The MIT Press

$27.95

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How we can get more joy from our machines by telling them what our hearts desire.

In this informative, accessible, and very funny book, Michael L. Littman inspires readers to learn how to tell machines what to do for us. Rather than give in to the fear that computers will steal our jobs, spy on us and control what we buy and whom we vote for, we can improve our relationship with them just by learning basic programming skills. Our devices will help us, Littman writes, if we can say what we want in a way they can understand.

Each chapter of the book focuses on a particular element of what can be said, providing examples of how we use similar communication in our daily interactions with people. Littman offers ways readers can experiment with these ideas right away, using publicly available systems that might also make us more productive as a welcome side effect. Each chapter also reflects on how the use of these programming components can be expedited by machine learning. With humor and teacherly guidance, Code to Joy brings into view a future where programming is like reading—something everyone can learn.

Michael L. Littman is University Professor of Computer Science at Brown University and holds an adjunct position with the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing. He was selected by the American Association for the Advancement of Science as a Leadership Fellow for Public Engagement with Science in Artificial Intelligence.

“This is an important and timely book about us, the machines we have come to depend on, and the new world that creates, written by the second funniest person in computing and computer science.”
Charles Isbell, Dean, John P. Imlay, Jr. Chair, College of Computing, Georgia Tech

“In Code to Joy, computer scientist Phillipa Gill explores the ways that code can fail us and argues that everyone should learn to code so that we can make sure our machines are doing what we want them to do.”
GPT-3 (deep neural network, Open AI)

“Seems like a nice book, but I didn't write it.”
Phillipa Gill, Adjunct Associate Professor, Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences, University of Massachusetts—Amherst

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Code to Joy

Why Everyone Should Learn a Little Programming

Code to Joy

Why Everyone Should Learn a Little Programming

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