Since their invention, computers have kept revolutionizing the world at a staggering pace. And yet, if on one side this ongoing revolution keeps providing an incessant stream of novel and previously unimaginable technologies, on the other, as with all revolutions, its profound effects threaten to upend much of the previous world order. Facing the many questions that this change is urgently raising will require to acquire a novel and interdisciplinary understanding of the powerful forces that govern this process. Sitting squarely at the crossroads of computer science, history, socioeconomics, ethics, and philosophy, and written by an insider who contributed foundational work to many of the latest and most pervasive technologies this book offers a much-needed reframing of the past, present and future of computing, that goes far beyond the typical chronological record of events and arms us with a uniquely broad and integrated analysis of their complex origins and their numerous side effects.

Jacopo Pantaleoni is an author, mathematician and computer scientist who is relying on his unique experience as a long-time industry insider to investigate the broad impact and side effects of emerging technologies on democracy and humankind. Before exploring this new side of his polyhedric work, he had spent over twenty-five years doing core research at the leading edge of the computer graphics and high-performance computing industries that provided the pillars of the ongoing AI and Metaverse initiatives. He had pioneered the use of photorealistic rendering in the visual effects world in the late 90s, led research at one of the main companies producing the software originally used to give life to The Matrix movies, contributed key technology for the making of James Cameron’s Avatar, and worked for over 15 years as a Principal Scientist at NVIDIA, exploring the use, design and potential of the now pervasive Graphics Processing Units powering the world’s largest hyper-scale data centers and AI factories.