Bots is the story of cyberspace's first indigenous species. Strings of code, bots are a software version of a mechanical robot. Originally meant to do our bidding, when unleashed by computer hackers bots can disable computing systems and engage in personal attacks, and are capable of causing nuisance and chaos all over the Internet. Bots have great potential for either organizing our lives or sabotaging them. In telling the tale of the development of software robots, Andrew Leonard constructs a playful, fascinating, anecdote-rich history of the Internet, tracking it from the free-form ASCII-text playground of chipheads, researchers, and scientists to the sprawling, advertising-laden, cultural entity it has become. In an expert and entertaining book, Leonard makes a sophisticated subject understandable, and explores the psychology and anthropology of popular technology.

Bots : the origins of new species

Andrew Leonard

New York: Penguin Books

Ladybird Books Ltd

Penguin Books Ltd

Computers/science & technology, New York, 1998, ©1997

Computers/science & technology, London, 1997

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

New York, New York State, 1998

September 1, 1998

New York, ©2000

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Includes bibliographical references (p.251-258) and index.

Originally published: HardWired, 1997.

Bots is the story of cyberspace's first indigenous species. These bots - mere strings of code - are now poised to change our lives. They are as close to us as the nearest computer. They live autonomously on the Net as stand-ins for our drives and desires. They collect things for us. They correct things for us. They do what we want them to do. They do what we don't want them to do. Andrew Leonard recounts the saga of these software robots in all its quirkiness: from the trials and tribulations of artificial intelligence to the hilarious lifestyles of the first bots and the havoc they set in motion.

269 pages ; 19 cm
Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-258) and index

2023-06-28