2. 316 HEYWARD EHRLICH
have offered in the last five years such courses as
Computers and Literature (English), Computers
and the Humanities (American Studies) and
various Literary Topics and Technology & Cul-
ture courses. To obtain necessary enrollments,
these courses had to meet some requirement,
whether the traditional college humanities or
literature requirement, the Education department
technology requirement, or the college inter-dis-
ciplinary course requirement.
My students came from English, Computer
Science, Education, and related fields, and usually
they had two questions: (i) Will I be forced to do
programming? and (ii) Will I have the chance to
work hands-on with computers? In this mixed
population, I feel I conduct not just a college
course but rather an inter-disciplinary collision
course: I wish to confront the hard-heads and the
soft-heads with each other, to get Computer
Science majors and English majors to discover
basic things about each other's discipline. The
courses I teach are one semester long and have no
prerequisite and no sequel. I assign five or more
whole books (usually no anthologies), each leading
to a short paper. The student chooses to do a term
reading paper, a computer program, or a super-
vised project. I expect students to master word
processing and e-mail; I demonstrate software
packages and simple programming for text analy-
sis. A sampling of shareware programs is available
to those who want them. There are both mid-term
and final exams.
I believe the value of such a course will ulti-
mately depend neither on programming experi-
ence nor on hands-on work in the microcomputer
lab. Like all other important college courses, it
must be judged by the quality of its ideas. My
position -- surely it is a minority position -- is
based on several axioms. One: students in college
should never wholly abandon the idea of reading
whole books. Two: the books should be selected
because of the importance, originality, and reada-
bility of the author's research, argument, and
presentation. Three: I am not teaching a skills
course. Four: what may matter most in such
courses is what students think -- and the chief
evidence of what they think is what they write
about what they read. Five: while involved in the
technical effect of computers on the humanities,
we should not forget the intellectual impact of the
humanities upon computing. Six: often the most
interesting areas of Computers and the Humani-
ties courses are those where disciplines connect or
collide. Thus when students are doing different
things in their papers, programs, and projects, this
diversity is the part of the course that can be the
most exciting, most creative, and most significant.
In theory, up to five different sets of liberal arts
disciplines can connect in humanist computing:
(i) the physical sciences (computer science,
mathematics, and physics);
(ii) the humanities (literature, foreign languages,
linguistics, philosophy, history, and the fine
arts);
(iii) the social sciences (psychology, cognitive
science, sociology, anthropology, and eco-
nomics);
(iv) professional and vocational programs (lib-
rary and information science, education,
journalism, the media);
(v) interdisciplinary areas (technology and so-
ciety, history of science, American studies,
women's studies, third world studies, envi-
ronmental studies).
Over five hundred permutations and combina-
tions can result from pairings of these academic,
professional, and vocational subjects. But the
actual clusters that are commonly found can be
counted on the fingers of both hands. Each tends
to define itself around a syllabus or short reading
list.
The Bibliography
When humanities computing is in the news, much
information may be gleaned from general publica-
tions such as Business Week, High Technology,
The New York Times, Newsweek, Psychology
Today, Science, Science News, Scientific Ameri-
can, The WallStreet Journal, and The Whole Earth
Review. Indeed, some aspects of the field, such as
hypertext, multimedia, CD-ROM, networking,
text scanning, and scholar's microcomputer
workstations, are changing so rapidly that books
cannot keep up. Therefore books must be supple-
mented by these general publications and also by
specialist periodicals, electronic sources, and
newsletters (see section 11 below).
3. AN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIBLIOGRAPHY 317
The lists that follow are grouped into several
clusters:
1. Textbooks and overviews of computers in the
humanities
2. Beginners' introductions to humanities com-
puting
3. Human languages and computer languages
4. Literary and linguistic analysis in practice
5. Artificial intelligence and robotics
6. Current debates on humanistic and social
issues
7. The image of computers in fiction
8. Collections and anthologies
9. Writing and the classsroom
10. Science, technology and society
11. Journals, newsletters, bibliography, reference,
topics.
I have not included separate articles or books on
using software packages. My annotation combines
what interested undergraduate students, what has
been said in print, and my own responses. These
lists can suggest course units, reading projects,
reserve shelf plans, and ways of refreshing college
libraries. They also provide suggestions for faculty
summer reading.
For reasons of space I have omitted many
background writings on technology, information,
and society by such authors as Daniel Bell,
Jacques Ellul, Sigfried Giedion, Thomas Kuhn,
Leo Marx, Marshall McLuhan, Lewis Mumford,
John Naisbit, Robert Pirsig, and Alvin Toffier.
Each section begins with remarks for which I
am responsible. I welcome responses and sugges-
tions of any kind from readers.
Note: this bibliography was first compiled late
in 1987, but a few 1988 items could be added in
time for the Oberlin conference in June 1988.
Afterwards, additional items for 1988--1990
were added, without annotation.
1. Overviews and Textbooks for Computers in
the Humanities
No standard textbook has emerged yet. The 132
teachers of computers and the humanities courses
who responded to Joseph Rudman's survey in
Computers and the Humanities adopted 91 differ-
ent books. Only a handful agreed on any texts at
all, namely the well-known texts by Hockey and
Oakman, both of which were written before 1980.
By contrast, more than fifty teachers relied on
their own handouts and documentation. Perhaps
the promising new texts by Feldman and Norman,
Pfaffenberger, or Tannenbaum will establish
themselves. The Forester anthology (1989) makes
a useful reader. The Walter volumes are com-
mendably and memorably off-beat.
Feldman, Paula R. and Buford Norman. The
Wordworthy Computer." Classroom and Research
Applications in Language and Literature. New
York: Random House, 1987. A handbook that
moves upward from word processing to indexing,
concordances, and literary analysis and text edit-
ing, using current microcomputer examples. Ex-
cellent bibliography and index; directed to teach-
ers.
Forester, Tom, ed. Computers in the Human
Context: Information Technology, Productivity,
and People. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989.
The third collection of its kind, taken from pub-
lications of the mid- and late-1980s, intended to
supersede Forester's 1980 and 1985 anthologies,
below.
Forester, Tom. High-Tech Society: The Story of
the Information Technology Revolution. Cam-
bridge, MA: MIT Press, 1987. Better known as the
editor of anthologies of articles on information
technology, Forester here weaves a continuous
story in his own words.
Hockey, Susan. A Guide to Computer Applica-
tions in the Humanities. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1980. A well-established author-
ity that treats the nature of literary and linguistic
computing though the detailed discussion of
selected mainframe procedures and software
packages.
Kren, George M. and George Christakes. Scho-
lars and Personal Computers: Microcomputers in
the Humanities and Social Science. New York:
Human Sciences, 1988. Practical applications on
many different computer research applications
and procedures, but much of the hardware and
software described has been superseded.
Oakman, Robert. Computer Methods for Liter-
ary Research. Rev. ed. Athens, GA: University of
Georgia Press, 1984. A standard survey and intro-
duction to computers and literary computing, still
4. 318 HEYWARD EHRLICH
useful for discussions of problems and procedures
and for its range, balance, and examples.
Rudall, B. H. and T. N. Corns. Computers and
Literature: A Practical Guide. Kent: Tunbridge
Wells and Boston: Abacus, 1987. Wide-reaching
chapters that introduce computers and literary
and linguistic computing procedures. No index or
bibliography.
Pfaffenberger, Brian. The Scholar's Personal
Computing Handbook: A Practical Guide. Boston:
Little, Brown, 1986. An introduction and survey
of software applications, communications, data-
bases, and expansion hardware for teachers and
scholars. A separate handbook, not reviewed, is
for student use.
Tannenbaum, Robert. Computing in the Hu-
manities and Social Sciences: Volume 1: Funda-
mentals. Rockville, MD: Computer Science Press,
1988. A general introductory textbook on compu-
ter science that systematically considers computer
history, fundamentals, programming, and software
applications. A discipline-based second volume
has been announced.
Walter, Russ. The Secret Guide to Computers. 3
vols. Russ Walter, 1987. (Russ Walter, 22 Ashland
Street, Somerville, MA 21434, telephone 617-
666-2666). When computing books get ponder-
ous and wearisome, the antidote is the zaniness
of Russ Walter, whose tangible discussions of
hardware, software, and languages contain an
unexpectedly large number of humanistic applica-
tions.
2. Beginners' Introductions to Humanities
Computing
The low-level works by Bernstein, Evans, Kidder,
and McWilliams are very readable.
Bernstein, Jeremy. The Analytic Engine: Com-
puters-Past Present and Future. Morrow, 1985.
Excellent historical essays on the development of
computers, originallypublished in the New Yorker.
Crichton, Michael. Electronic Life: How to
Think about Computers. New York: Ballantine,
1985. The science fiction novelist's thoughts,
feelings, and suggestions about encounters with a
personal computer.
Evans, Christopher. The Micro Millennium.
New York: Viking Press, 1980. Although exces-
sively euphoric, a panorama of a paperless future
in education, home, offices, schools, factories, and
professions.Veryreadable.
Hodges, Andrew. Alan Turing: The Enigma.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984. A remark-
able biography written with both scientific under-
standing of the mathematics and politics of break-
ing the German code in World War II and com-
passion for Turing's personal ordeal as a homo-
sexual during a repressive era in England.
Kidder, Tracy. The Soul of a New Machine.
New York: Avon, 1982. An account of the
bonding and interaction of members a minicom-
puter design team at Data General, this book is
deservedly the winner of its Pulitzer prize.
McWilliams, Peter. The Personal Computer
Book. New York: Ballantine, 1983. Also The
Word Processing Book. New York: Ballantine,
1984. Although dated, these quirky books by a
former best-selling poet present essentials with
humor. McWilliams names brand names and finds
way to juxtapose hilarous pictures.
Sandberg-Diment, Eric. They All Laughed
When I Sat Down at the Computer. New York:
Simon & Schuster, 1984. A chronicle of the
microcomputer revolution of 1982--1984, col-
lected from the author's columns in The New York
Times, viewing industry events with welcome wit
and skepticism.
Understanding Computers. Alexandria, VA:
Time-Life Books, 1986 -- . A series of separate
introductions to various computer basics, such as
input and output, graphics, communications, arti-
ficial intelligence, and similar topics, each ex-
plored in depth in a few areas and accompanied by
memorable graphics illustrations.
3. Human Languages, Number Languages, and
ComputerLanguages
Linguistic parallels between human languages,
DNA codes, communication theory, and pro-
gramming languages are rarely covered in stand-
ard courses. Beginners should consider the books
by Campbell, Levine, and Shore.
Bar-Lev, Zev. Computer Talk for the Liberal
Arts. New York: Prentice Hall, 1987. An unusual
discussion of concepts in computer operations,
natural language processing, artificial intelligence,
linguistics, and computer languages.
Campbell, Jeremy. Grammatical Man: Infor-
5. AN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIBLIOGRAPHY 319
mation, Entropy, Language, and Life. New York:
Simon & Schuster, 1982. A provocative book that
uses Claude Shannon's communication theory to
place information along with matter and energy as
a third primary ingredient in the cosmos, in DNA,
and in human and computer languages.
Goldenberg, E. Paul and Wallace Feurzeig.
Exploring Language with LOGO. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press, 1987. A lively exploration, first
of its kind, exploiting the verbal capability of
LOGO in the linguistic study of poetry, prose,
syntax, morphology, orthography, and phonology.
Macintosh diskette available.
Heim, Michael. Electric Language: A Philo-
sophical Study of Word Processing. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1987. A deep analysis of
word processing using the language theories of
Wittgenstein, Eric Holbrook, and Martin Heideg-
ger.
Ifrah, Georges. From One to Zero: A Universal
History of Numbers. New York: Viking Press,
1985. A fascinating account of number systems,
number alphabets and signs, and the history of
counting and reckoning all over the world.
Levine, Howard and Howard Rheingold. The
Cognitive Connection: Thought and Language in
Man and Machine. New York: Prentice Hall,
1987. Treatments of parallels between natural
language, computer control, and standard compu-
ter programming languages.
Menninger, Otto. Number Words and Number
Symbols. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1969. The
relation of numbers to non-numerical language
and the emergence of counting and reckoning as
languages of their own.
Shore, John. The Sachertorte Algorithm, and
Other Antidotes to Computer Anxiety. New York:
Penguin, 1986. When is a sachertorte recipe an
algorithm? An offbeat introduction to computer
technology, software, programming, languages,
and artificial intelligence that becomes unexpect-
edly sophisticated.
4. Literary and Linguistic Analysis
Should we teach programming, and if so, which
matters more, the result or the process? Should
the programming language be hypothetical or
actual? Should we use the available local pro-
gramming language or the most suitable pro-
gramming language for literary operations? De-
pending on language and environment, some
possible choices are Abercrombie (BASIC), Ide
(Pascal), Hockey (Snobol), and Marcus (Apple II).
Abercrombie, John R. Computer Programs for
Literary Analysis. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1984. A collection of ready-
made literary computer programs, each explained
line-by-line, and repeated in BASIC, PASCAL,
and IBYX. Diskettes available.
Burrows, J. F. Computation into Criticism: A
Study of Jane Austen's Novels and an Experiment
in Method. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1987.
Butler, Christopher. Computers in Linguistics.
New York: Basil Blackwell, 1985. A survey of
computers, literary and linguistic problems, and
useful packages, followed by a full treatment of
programming in SNOBOL4.
Butler, Christopher. Statistics in Linguistics.
New York: Basil Blackwell, 1985. A companion
volume to the above that assumes some knowl-
edge of mathematics and introduces the reader to
fundamentals of textual statistics.
Conway, Richard and James Archer. Program-
ming for Poets: A Gentle Introduction Using
BASIC. Winthrop, 1979. In this case "poets"
means "non-programmers." Useful companion
volumes, which also take a verbal rather than
mathematical approach, were published on Pascal,
Fortran, and PL/I.
Corrr, Alan D. Icon Programming for Human-
ists. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1990. The only
book on Icon for humanities users; intended for
experienced programmers.
Griswold, Ralph E. and Madge G. Griswold.
The Implementation of the Icon Programming
Language. Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1986. The official manual of the structured, public
domain language that Griswold introduced to
replace Snobol.
Harris, Mary Dee. Introduction to Natural
Language Processing. New York: Reston, 1985. A
consideration of human natural language proces-
sing, followed by a discussion of programming for
advanced computer science undergraduates; uses
pseudo-code based on PASCAL, with some ele-
ments of SNOBOL4.
Hockey, Susan. Snobol Programming for the
6. 320 HEYWARD EHRLICH
Humanities. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1985. An introduction to SNOBOL4 as a literary
and linguistic programming language that assumes
no prior knowledge of computing or mathematics.
Ide, Nancy. Pascal for the Humanities. Phila-
delphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987.
Systematic explanations of the problems in literary
and textual analysis, taking the student step-by-
step through programs of graduated difficulty in
standard PASCAL.
Marcus, Jeffrey and Marvin Marcus. Comput-
ing without Mathematics: BASIC [and] Pascal
Applications. New York: Computer Science Press,
1986. An introduction to programming in BASIC
and Pascal for undergraduate humanities and
social science students using the Apple II; pro-
grams published on diskette.
Nagao, Makoto. Machine Translation:How Far
Can It Go? Trans. Norman D. Cook. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1989.
Potter, Rosanne G., ed. Literary Computing and
Literary Criticism: Theoretical and Practical Es-
says on Theme and Rhetoric. Philadelphia: Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania Press, 1989.
Spencer, Cynthia. Programming for the Liberal
Arts. Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Allenheld, 1985.
An informal and personal introduction to PL/C, a
version of PL/I used at Cornell.
5. Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Media
Much of the early euphoria of AI writers -- and
partisanship of AI critics -- has disappeared in
favor of a more skeptical but still positive attitude.
For beginners in AI, the works of Dreyfus (1979),
McCorduck, and Sacks are highly recommended.
Boden, Margaret. Artificial Intelligence and
Natural Man. New York: Basic Books, rev. 2 d ed.,
1987. A classic work on AI from the point of view
of philosophy and psychology that has the virtue
of unexpected clarity.
Brand, Stewart. The Media Lab : Inventing the
Future at MIT. New York: Viking Press, 1987. A
tour of the frontiers of media technology in the
process of discovery and creation at MIT by the
man to whom we owe The Whole Earth Cata-
logue.
Dennett, Daniel C. Brainstorms: Philosophic
Essays on Mind and Psychology. Cambridge, MA:
M1T Press, 1978. Analyses of problems of mind
and brain, and computer models of thought,
perception, and sensation.
Dreyfus, Hubert. What Computers Can't Do.
New York: Harper & Row, rev ed., 1979. A
sustained attack on the claims, methods and
presuppositions of the AI field, especially cogni-
tive simulation and semantic information proces-
sing.
Dreyfus, Hubert L. and Stuart E. Dreyfus. Mind
Over Machine: The Power of Human Intui-
tion and Expertise in the Era of the Computer.
New York: Free Press, 1988. The updated case
against AI, expert systems, and the misuse of
computers in education, with a rebuttal to "Fifth
Generation" enthusiasts and especially to Pamela
McCorduck, whose Machines Who Think was a
reply to Dreyfus's own What Computers Can't Do.
Fjermedal, Grant. Tomorrow Makers: A Brave
New World of Living-Brain Machines. New York:
Macmillan, 1986. AI and robotics research fron-
tiers in the labs of MIT, Stanford, Harvard, and
Carnegie-Mellon, enthusiastically visited by a
prize winning science writer.
Gardner, Howard. The Mind's New Science: A
History of the Cognitive Revolution. New York:
Basic Books, 1985. The connections between
computing, cognitive psychology, philosophy, psy-
chology, information theory, linguistics, anthro-
pology, mathematics, and theories of perception
and representation.
Hofstadter, Douglas R. and Daniel C. Dennett,
compilers. The Mind's I. New York: Basic Books,
1981. Bibliography. An inspiring collection of
articles, fiction, and essays on mind, soul, and self
in philosophy, literature, and artificial intelligence.
Bibliography.
Hofstadter, Douglas R. Goedei, Escher, Bach.
New York: Random House, 1980. A stimulating,
fascinating, but demanding book on self-referen-
tial loops in the mathematician Goedel, the painter
Escher, and the composer J. S. Bach, with implica-
tions for mathematical logic, DNA, music, art,
computer programming, and AI. Impressive bibli-
ography.
Hofstadter, Douglas R. Metamagical Themas:
Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern.
New York: Bantam, 1986. A gathering of notions,
7. AN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIBLIOGRAPHY 321
puzzles, and queries, alternately profound and
capricious in the author's unique manner, origi-
nally published in the columns of Scientific Ameri-
can. Excellent bibliography.
Johnson, George. Machinery of the Mind."
Inside the New Science of Artificial Intelligence.
Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press, 1986. An un-
usually well-written and well-integrated survey of
artificial intelligence, its movements, people, and
controversies. Selective bibliography.
Johnson-Laird, Philip. The Computer and the
Mind: An Introduction to Cognitive Science.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988.
The case that while nothing has been as useful in
creating models of the mind in the last three
decades as the digital computer, at the same time,
nothing has produced as much misunderstanding
and unmet expectations.
McCorduck, Pamela. Machines Who Think.
New York: W. H. Freeman, 1979. Delightfully
written, full of enthusiasm for the potentialities of
artificial intelligence, with eye-witness accounts of
actual events as well as a fine survey of AI in
literature and mythology.
Minsky, Marvin. The Society of Mind. New
York: Simon & Schuster, 1988. Structured as a
mosaic of self-contained pages, suggesting how the
biological brain might operate locally but be trans-
formed when it functions globally as mind.
Minsky, Marvin and Seymour Papert. Percep-
trons: An Introduction to Computer Geometry.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, rev. ed., 1988. An
expansion of the classic on learning machines,
which prints the 1972 corrections of the 1969 text
with a survey of the progress and problems of the
last two decades.
Sacks, Oliver. The Man Who Mistook His Wife
for A Hat. New York: Harper & Row, 1987. As
brilliant as short stories, these case histories of
persons with brain damage reveal what we take for
granted about mind in the perceptual and cogni-
tive systems in the brain.
Schank, Roger and Peter Childers. The Cogni-
tive Computer. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley,
1985. A veteran of the AI movement reviews for
the general reader what AI can and cannot do. Of
special interest is Schank's interest in multiple
levels of cognition in AI translation.
6. Current Debates on Humanistic and Social
Issues
Each work in this section is highly recommended.
Students respond strongly and emotionally (in
separate ways) to Durham, Roszak, and Turkle.
Students with humanities backgrounds will appre-
ciate Bolter. Among more recent books, try
Garson, Stoll, or Zuboff, and, for more advanced
readers, Hardison or Penrose.
Bolter, J. David. Turing's Man. Chapel Hill,
NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1984. An
impressive account of the implications of comput-
ing, tracing the defining technology of several eras
and showing the philosophical impact of the
computer upon basic concepts of time, memory,
quantity, creativity, and intelligence.
Durham, David. The Rise of the Computer
State. New York: Vintage, 1983. A chilling ac-
count by a reporter for The New York Times of
the threat to privacy of a unified national database
of the NSA, FBI, Social Security, IRS, police,
credit, health, and other organizations.
Garson, Barbara. The Electronic Sweatshop:
How WeAre Transforming the Office of the Future
into the Factory of the Past. New York: Penguin
Books, 1988. A provocative expos6 alleging that
data clerks are becoming dehumanized and man-
agers are finding themselves undermined in the
"second industrial revolution" now taking place in
the high-tech workplace; portions of the book first
appeared in Mother Jones.
Hardison, O. B. Disappearing Through the
Skylight : Culture and Technology in the Twentieth
Century. New York: Viking, 1989. Profound
queries into the arrival of modernism and tech-
nology in the twentieth century and the apparent
result: the disappearance of traditional ideas of
nature, history, language, art, and human self-
identity.
Marx, Leo. The Pilot and the Passenger :Essays
on Literature, Technology, and Culture. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Essays
spanning over one-third of a century, some of
which develop themes in the author's well-knowm
The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the
Pastoral Ideal in America (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1964).
Nelson, Ted. Computer Lib~Dream Machines.
8. 322 HEYWARD EHRLICH
Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press, rev. ed., 1987. A
re-issue with some revisions of the classic 1974
double-decker that introduced the notion of hy-
pertext.
Penrose, Roger. The Emperor's New Mind:
Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of
Physics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
A distinguished scientist, Penrose moves mind-
body inquiries that oppose the "strong AI" posi-
tion to the high ground of the philosophy of
science, cosmology, and quantum mechanics to
explore what may be the natural limits of our
physicial knowledge of human consciousness.
Roszak, Theodore. The Cult of Information.
New York: Pantheon, 1987. A debunking book
about the information glut, the menace of hidden
agendas in computer literacy programs, and
dangerous databanks that can curtail our civil
liberties. Recommended as an antidote to com-
puter and AI euphoria.
Steinman, Lisa Malinowski. Made in America:
Science, Technology, and American Modernist
Poetry. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.
How modernism brought with it the unusual
philosophical acceptance of science and tech-
nology in the poetry of William Carlos Williams,
Marianne Moore, and Wallace Stevens in the
period 1910--1945.
Stoll, Clifford. The Cuckoo's Egg: Inside the
World of Corporate Espionage. New York: Dou-
bleday, 1989. A fascinating first person docu-
mentary account of a search (unassisted by the
FBI, CIA, or NSA) into several supposedly
secured computers to eventually find a hacker in
West Germany who broke into the Lawrence
Berkeley Laboratory mainframe.
Tichi, Cecelia. Shifting Gears: Technology,
Literature, Culture in Modernist America. Chapel
Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press,
1987. The implications of "gear-and-girder" tech-
nology for American society, culture, and litera-
ture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Turkle, Sherry. The Second Self. New York:
Simon & Schuster, 1985. A remarkable and
original book which applies six years of sociologi-
cal and psychological research, as well as the
principles of Piaget and Freud, to the question of
what children, adolescents, adults, and profes-
sionals actually feel about computers and what
they feel about themselves while using computers.
Zuboff, Shoshana. In the Age of the Smart
Machine : the Future of Work and Power. New
York: Basic Books, 1988. An unusual book, based
on five years of field work by a faculty member of
the Harvard Business School, that asks how the
information revolution changes knowledge in the
workplace, our sense of computer-mediated work,
and the structure of managerial power.
7. The Image of Computers and Intelligent
Machines in Fiction
a. Collections and treatments
The Asimov collection is excellent but expensive;
the Mowshowitz book is quite good but not in
print.
Asimov, Isaac et al. Machines That Think.
Orlando, FL: Holt, Rinehart Winston, 1983.
Twenty-nine classic tales, chiefly from 1932 to
1973.
Conklin, Groff. Science Fiction Thinking Ma-
chines. New York: Vanguard, 1954. An early
collection of tales about robots, androids, and
computers.
Dunn, Thomas P. and Richard D. Erlich, eds.
The Mechanical God: Machines in Science Fic-
tion. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1982.
Eighteen essays. Good bibliography.
Erlich, Richard D. and Thomas P. Dunn, eds.
Clockwork Worlds: Mechanized Environments in
SF. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1983.
Fifteen essays. Useful bibliography.
Mowshowitz, Abbe. Inside Information: Com-
puters in Fiction. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley,
1977. A collection of some three dozen works or
excerpts from works of fiction that pertain to
computers or computing; good bibliography.
Nicholls, Peter, ed. The Encyclopedia of Science
Fiction. New York: Doubleday, 1976. Informative
articles on such science fiction subjects as compu-
ters, communications, linguistics, information,
intelligence, and technology.
Porush, David. The Soft Machine: Cybernetic
Fiction. New York: Methuen, 1985. A discussion
of fiction about cybernetics and computers in such
authors as Vonnegut, Burroughs, Pynchon, Barth,
Beckett, and Barthelme. Bibliography.
Warrick, Patricia. The Cybernetic Imagination
in Science Fiction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,
9. AN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIBLIOGRAPHY 323
1985. A study of 225 works of science fiction
written between 1930 and 1970. Useful bibliogra-
phy.
Van Tassel, Dennie. Computers, Computers,
Computers. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1977.
A potpourri of tales, verse, limericks, and news-
paper columns.
b. Selected individual works
Beginners may start on works by Asimov, Clarke,
Forster, and Shelley. The utopian-dystopian issue
may be traced in readings by Bellamy, Butler,
Huxley, Orwell, and Wells.
Adams, Henry. The Education of Henry Adams
(1918). See "The Dynamo and the Virgin," chap-
ter 25.
Asimov, Isaac. I, Robot. New York: New
American Library, 1956. Perhaps the best known
cycle of tales on robots by a single author.
Barth, John. Giles Goat-Boy. New York: Dou-
bleday Anchor, 1987. A satire after Swift and
Sterne on the alternate world of the computer as
troll, mechanist universe, and author.
Bellamy, Edward. Looking Backward: 2000--
1887 (1888). Intended as a utopia of a thoroughly
mechanized and bureaucratic world.
Beirce, Ambrose. "Moxon's Master" (1893).
Do machines think?
Bruner, John. The Shockwave River. New
York: Ballantine, 1984. Gives new meaning to the
phrase "computer-human interface."
Butler, Samuel. Erewhon (1872). See "The
Book of the Machine," chapters 21--23.
Clarke, Arthur C. 2001. New York: New
American Library, 1972. Based on the filmscript
by Clarke and Stanley Kubrick. See also Clarke's
sequels, 2010 (also a film) and 2061.
Forster, E. M. "The Machine Stops" (1909). A
forecast in 1909 of the dystopian theme of twen-
tieth century mechanized society as insect hive.
Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York:
Ace, 1984. The novel that defined and became
one of the first classics of cyberpunk.
Heinlein, Robert. The Moon is a Harsh Mis-
tress. New York: Ace, 1987. A moon civilization
overthrows exploitation by earth when it is led by
its computer.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World (1932).
Original outcry against mechanization, genetic
engineering, and mind control.
Orwell, George. 1984 (1949). The classic con-
temporary dystopia of the techno-totalitarian state
and its impact on political thought, political
language, and personal feeling.
Roszak, Theodore. Bugs. New York: Double-
day, 1981. The computer as insect by the author
of The Cult ofInformation.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein (1818). Amazingly
perfective anticipations of issues in bio-technology,
the social responsibility of the scientist, and the
psychology of double identity which will astonish
readers who only know the movie versions.
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. Player Piano. New York:
Scribners, 1952. A machine-technological politi-
cal and social elite.
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. The Sirens of Titan. New
York: Dell, 1959. The army as the ultimate human
machine.
Wells, H. G. A Modern Utopia (1905). A pro-
fessional-technocratic utopia, probably the occa-
sion for Forster's satiric reply, "The Machine
Stops."
Wells, H. G. The Time Machine (1895). Unex-
pectedly thoughtful and provocative Marxian and
Darwinian speculations into a far future in which
human work roles, classes, races, and species have
become redefined in radically unexpected ways.
8. Collections and Anthologies
The Forester collections of articles are of high
quality. For lighter, more unusual material, see
Ditlea and Van Tassel.
Dertouzos, Michael L., et al, eds. The Computer
Age: A Twenty Year View. Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press, 1980. Future technological, economic,
educational, and social issues as they were seen
by Terry Winograd, Seymour Papert, Daniel
Bell, Herbert A. Simon, Marvin Minsky, Joseph
Weizenbaum, and others.
Ditlea, Steve, ed. Digital Deli. New York:
Workman, 1984. A collage of items by Howard
Rheingold, Steve Wozniac, Ted Nelson, Esther
Dyson, Peter McWilliams, Robert A. Moog,
Mitchell Kapor, Timothy Leary, and William F.
Buckley, Jr.
Forester, Tom, ed. The Information Technology
Revolution. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1985.
Material on telecommunications, artificial intel-
ligence, the "fifth generation," information tech-
nology in schools, factories, offices, banks, and
10. 324 HEYWARD EHRLICH
hospitals, weapons systems, crime, and women's
fights from periodicals of the early 1980s.
Forester, Tom, ed. The Microelectronics Revo-
lution. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1980. Arti-
cles published before 1980 on computing and
information technology, especially on aspects of
its economic impact on industry, the office,
employment, industry, and society.
Newman, James, ed. The World of Mathe-
matics. 4 vols New York: Simon & Shuster, 1956.
Volume 4 contains Alan Turing's "Can a Machine
Think?" and John yon Neumann's "The General
and Logical Theory of Automata."
Van Tassel, Dennie. The Compleat Computer.
Chicago: SRA (Science Research Associates),
1976. Miscellanies by Norman Cousins, Claude
Shannon, Michael Crichton, Ray Bradbury, Art
Buchwald, Arthur C. Clarke, Stewart Brand, W.
H. Auden, and John Kemeny.
9. Research, Writing,andTeaching
From the enormous bibliography of these fields,
here are a few works of unusual quality or high
interest.
Barrett, Edward, ed. Text, ConText, and Hyper-
Text." Writing with and for the Computer. Cam-
bridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988. Ignore the title: this
is actually a collection of twenty-one conference-
based articles on computer documentation, tech-
nical writing, natural language processing, writer
training, and writing management.
Chicago Guide to Preparing Electronic Manu-
scripts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1987. An attempt to describe and standardize
procedures in electronic text transmission.
Cole, Bernard. Beyond Word Processing. New
York: McGraw-Hill, 1985. Describes information
storage in textbases, wordbases, and existing
writing software.
Daiute, Colette. Writing& Computers. Reading,
MA: Addison Wesley, 1985. How computers
should and should not be used at various levels of
instruction, using the fine realization that writing is
a cognitive and social process as well as a mechan-
ical one.
Olsen, Solveig, ed. Computer-Aided Instruction
in the Humanities. New York: MLA, 1985. Essays
on college teaching in history, foreign languages,
logic, and writing. Extensive bibliography and lists
of personnel and programs.
Seiden, Peggy, ed. A Directory of Software
Sources for Higher Education: A Resource Guide
for Instructional Applications. Princeton: Peter-
son, n.d.
10. Science, Technology and Society
Information theory comes to the forefront in re-
cent books by Gilder, Lucky, Pagels, and Penzias.
Ermann, M. David, et al. eds. Computers,
Ethics, and Society. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1990.
Gilder, George. Microcosm: The Quantum
Revolution in Economics and Technology. New
York: Touchstone (Simon & Shuster), 1989. A
bold, aggressively stated view that the impact of
the microchip on the mind and the realm of
information amounts to "the overthrow of matter."
Lucky, Robert W. Silicon Dreams: Information,
Man, and Machine. New York: St. Martin's Press,
1989. The executive director of research at Bell
Labs presents a serious overview of and introduc-
tion to the study of information, from Shannon's
information theory, to language, data, pictures,
and how they are processed.
Pagels, Heinz R. The Dreams of Reason: The
Computer and the Rise of the Sciences of Com-
plexity. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988. The
philosophical problem of complexity and the role
the computer plays in how we think about "the
nature of physical reality, the problem of cogni-
tion, the mind-body problem, the character of
scientific research, the nature of mathematics, and
the role of instruments in research" (Preface).
Penzias, Arno. Ideas and Information: Manag-
ing in a High-Tech World. New York: W. W.
Norton, 1989. Thoughtful and non-technical ex-
planations and anecdotes of computation and
information technology in the past, present, and
future by a Nobel prize winner, enlivened with his
reflections on European history and art and events
and his recollections of three decades at Bell Labs.
Simons, G. L. Eco-Computer." The Impact of
Global Intelligence. New York: John Wiley, 1987.
Slade, Joseph W, ed. Beyond the Two Cultures :
Essays on Science, Technology, and Literature.
Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 1990.
11. AN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIBLIOGRAPHY 325
Fourteen essays, originally presented at a con-
ference at Long Island University in 1983.
Warnier, Jean Dominique. Computers and
Human Intelligence. New York: Prentice-Hall,
1986.
11. Art,Bibliography,Journals, Networks,
Reference, Research
a. Art
Vaughan, W. and A. Hamber, eds. Computers
and the History ofArt. Bronx, NY: Mansell (H. W.
Wilson), 1989.
Prueitt, M. L. Art and the Computer. New
York: McGraw-Hill, 1985.
The Visual Computer (International Journal of
Computer Graphics) 4.1 (1988).
b. Bibliography
Caras, Pauline. "Literature and Computers. A
Short Bibliography, 1980-- 1987." College Litera-
ture, 15 (1988), 69--82.
Ehrlich, Heyward. "Information and Computer
Science" in Vol. 5 of The Reader's Adviser. Ed.
Paul T. Durbin. 13th ed. New York: R. R. Bowker,
1988.
Matsuba, Stephen N. "Computer Application in
the Humanities: A Reading List." Canadian Hu-
manities Computing, 4 (May 1990), 1--8.
Rudman, Joseph. "Selected Bibliography for
Computer Courses in the Humanities." Computers
and the Humanities, 21, 4 (1987), 245--54.
Two earlier bibliographies of computingbooks,
Michael Nicita and Ronald Petrusha, The Reader's
Guide to Microcomputer Books (1984) and Cris
Popenoe, Book Bytes: The User's Guide to 1200
Microcomputer Books (New York: Pantheon,
1984) are occasionally useful.
c. Journals and newsletters
The well-established computing periodicals
that are likely to have news of interest to human-
ists include Abacus, AI Expert, Bits and Bytes
Review, Byte, Computer Language, Computers
and the Humanities, lnfoWorld, Library High-
Tech News, Literary and Linguistic" Computing,
PC Magazine, PC World, and Text and Tech-
nology.
Here are some less well-known or more recent
computing periodicals and newsletters that spe-
cialize regularly in the humanities:
Academic Computing. Monthly. Academic
Computing Publications Inc., 200 W. Virginia,
Box 804, McKinnet, TX 75069.
Canadian Humanities Computing. Quarterly.
Robarts Library, 14th Floor, 130 St. George St.,
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A5. See especially "Com-
puter Applications in the Humanities: A Reading
List" in May 1990 issue.
Computers and Philosophy Newsletter. Car-
negie Mellon University, CDEC Building. B, Pitts-
burgh, PA 15213.
History and Computing. Journals Subscription
Dept., Oxford University Press, Pinkhill House,
Southfield Road, Eynsham, Oxford OX8 1JJ, UK.
Humanities Communication Newsletter. Dr.
May Katzen, Office of Humanities Communica-
tion, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK.
The Icon Newsletter. The Icon Project, Dept. of
Computer Science, University of Arizona, Tucson
AZ 85721.
d. Macintosh
Periodicals of special interest to Macintosh users
include MacUser, MacWorld, Minds in Motion,
Wheelsfor the Mind, and Wingsfor the Mind.
The Apple Macintosh Book. Redmond, WA:
Microsoft Press, 1988.
Goodman, Danny. The Complete HyperCard
Handbook. New York: Bantam Books, 1988.
Shneiderman, Bwen and Greg Kearsley. Hyper-
text Hands-On t.An Introduction to a New Way of
Organizing and Accessing Information. Reading,
MA: Addison-Wesley, 1989.
e. Networks, e-mail, conferencing,
Telecommunications
Critical Connections: Communications for the
Future. U.S. Congress, Office of Technology
Assessment, Washington, DC., 1990.
The Information Gap. A special issue of Jour-
nal of Communication, 39, 3 (1989).
Quarterman, John. The Matrix: Computer Net-
works and Conferencing Systems Worldwide.
Bedford, MA: Digital Press, 1990.
Note: Many on-line library catalogues can now
12. 326 HEYWARD EHRLICH
be searched by keyword and boolean patterns.
Some university mainframes offer gateways to
other catalogues and databases, including the
Library of Congress, the Research Libraries Infor-
mation Network (RLIN), and the Colorado Alli-
ance of Research Libraries (CARL). Among the
most notable electronic projects are the electronic
newsgroup HUMANIST and the Center for Elec-
tronic Texts in the Humanities.
f. Research and reference
Collins CobuiM English Language Dictionary.
Ed.-in-chief, John Sinclair. London: Collins,
1987. Produced by the Collins Birmingham Uni-
versity International Language Database project
(COBUILD) where 20 million words were
scanned to determine what contemporary English
was actually like. See also "Looking Up: An
Account of the COBUILD Project" in Lexical
Computing (London: Collins, 1987).
Creasy, William C. Microcomputers and Liter-
ary Scholarship : Papers Read at Clark Library.
Los Angeles, CA: William Andrews Clark Memo-
rial Library, University of California, Los Angeles,
1986.
Gould, Constance C. Information Needs in the
Humanities: An Assessment. Stanford, Research
Libraries Group, 1988.
Hughes, John J. Bits, Bytes, and Biblical Stud-
ies:A Resource Guide for the Use of Computers in
Biblical and Classical Studies. Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan, 1987.
Hockey, Susan and Nancy Ide, eds. Research in
Humanities Computing Yearbook 1989/90. A new
annual of based on papers presented at the joint
annual ACH/ALLC conference. The first volume,
of which the guest editor is Ian Lancashire, is
based on the Dynamic Text conference held in
Toronto in 1989. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, announced 1990.
Lancashire, Ian and Willard McCarty, comps.
The Humanities Computing Yearbook 1988. Ox-
ford: Oxford University Press, 1989. First of a
series of wide-reaching annual collections. Fol-
lowed by The Humanities Computing Yearbook
1989/1990 (1990).
Lowry, Anita amd Junko Stiveras, comps.
Scholarship in the Electronic Age: A Selected
Bibliography on Research and Communication in
the Humanities and Social Sciences. Washington,
DC: Council on Library Resources, 1987.
Miall, David, ed. Humanities and the Compu-
ter." New Directions. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1990.
Rahtz, Sebastian, ed. Information Technology
in the Humanities. New York: Halstead (John
Wiley), 1987. Recent teaching developments and
academic applications in history, literature, music,
art, languages, and archeology.Bibliography.
Schneider, Ben Ross, Jr. My Personal Computer
and Other Family Crises. New York: Macmillan,
1984. Reflections by the head of the team that
compiled The London Stage, begun in Travels
in Computerland (1974), continued here with
episodes of first turning to the microcomputer.
g. Hypertext and Hypermedia
Bolter, J. David. Writing Space: the Computer,
Hypertext, and the History of Writing. Hillsdale,
NJ.: L. Erlbaum Associates, 1991.
Delaney, Paul and George P. Landow, eds.
Hypermedia and Literary Studies. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press, 1991.
Note
* I wish to gratefully acknowledge the support of the Compu-
ters in Curricula program of the Department of Higher
Education of the State of New Jersey for 1986 and the
Council for the Improvement of Teaching of Rutgers -- the
State University of New Jersey for 1987--88.