Review | Life in Code audiobook a nostalgic take on technology

Life in Code
written and read by Ellen Ullman
Macmillan Audio

Ever started up an old computer and been transported back in time by the sound of the machine awakening? Life in Code has many such nostalgic moments, although Ellen Ullman, who began programming almost four decades ago, takes you further down techno­logy’s rabbit hole to explain how it has affected us socially and politically.

A self-taught geek, Ullman once had a job that saw her clicking away for two years without talking to anyone. The author, whose gift is an ability to explain technical matters to a lay audience, includes essays on everything from artificial intelligence to the ways patterns of thinking pass into the language of computers, to the death of a beloved cat and whether that pet wasn’t just like a robot hardwired for attention.

This is tech writing most of us can enjoy.