Norbert Wiener, perhaps better than anyone else, understood the intimate and delicate relationship between control and communication: that messages intended as commands do not necessarily differ from those intended simply as facts. Wiener noted the paradox when the modem computer was hardly more than a laboratory curiosity. Thirty years later, the same paradox is at the heart of a severe identity crisis which con- fronts computer programmers. Are they primarily members of "management" acting as foremen, whose task it is to ...
Read More
Norbert Wiener, perhaps better than anyone else, understood the intimate and delicate relationship between control and communication: that messages intended as commands do not necessarily differ from those intended simply as facts. Wiener noted the paradox when the modem computer was hardly more than a laboratory curiosity. Thirty years later, the same paradox is at the heart of a severe identity crisis which con- fronts computer programmers. Are they primarily members of "management" acting as foremen, whose task it is to ensure that orders emanating from executive suites are faithfully trans- lated into comprehensible messages? Or are they perhaps sim- ply engineers preoccupied with the technical difficulties of relating "software" to "hardware" and vice versa? Are they aware, furthermore, of the degree to which their work- whether as manager or engineer-routinizes the work of others and thereby helps shape the structure of social class relation- ships? I doubt that many of us who lived through the first heady and frantic years of software development-at places like the RAND and System Development Corporations-ever took time to think about such questions. The science fiction-like setting of mysterious machines, blinking lights, and torrents of numbers served to awe outsiders who could only marvel at the complexity of it all. We were insiders who constituted a secret society into which only initiates were welcome. So today I marvel at the boundless audacity of a rank out- sider in writing a book like Programmers and Managers.
Read Less
Add this copy of Programmers and Managers: the Routinization of Computer to cart. $28.01, very good condition, Sold by HPB Inc. rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1977 by Springer.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
Add this copy of Programmers and Managers: the Routinization of Computer to cart. $32.19, good condition, Sold by Red's Corner rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Tucker, GA, UNITED STATES, published 1977 by Springer.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. All orders ship by next business day! This is a used book. Grade 2 out 5 points. Books has moderate wear on cover and pages. Books with this grade may have any of the following: Personalized notes/names, stickers/labels, markings on pages, bends/creases on cover/spine, ex-library markings. May not include extra materials such as dust jackets, access codes, CDs, accessories, etc. We are a small company and very thankful for your business!
Add this copy of Programmers and Managers: the Routinization of Computer to cart. $61.59, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Clarita, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1977 by Springer.
