Devil in the Stack: A Coding Odyssey - Softcover

Smith, Andrew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1804710997 ISBN 13: 9781804710999

Publisher: Grove Press UK, 2025

Synopsis

Computer code was supposed to make the world a better place. When Andrew Smith began to suspect the opposite was happening, he asked himself why. Was it the coders? Or was there something about code itself, about the very way we compute, that could be intensifying rather than relieving our problems? To find out he realized he would need to dive headfirst into the machine by becoming a coder himself - in middle age, with no prior experience.

Devil in the Stack describes what quickly became the strangest and most astonishing assignment of the Moondust author's already colourful career, propelling him to the very heart of what it means to be human; to the cutting edge of philosophy, psychology, music, history and neuroscience, and ultimately the weird noir Neverland of Silicon Valley.

By turns revelatory, funny, inspiring and unsettling, this is an essential book for our time, indispensable to anyone hoping to understand the moment we're in.

About this title

About the Author

Andrew Smith has worked as a critic and feature writer for the Sunday Times, the Guardian, the Observer and The Face, and has penned documentaries for the BBC. He is the author of the internationally bestselling book Moondust, about the nine remaining men who walked on the moon between 1969 and 1972, and Totally Wired. He was raised in the UK and currently lives in California.

Edition details

• Publisher: Grove Press UK
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1804710997
• ISBN 13: 9781804710999
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464