Лучшие книги Стивена Джонсона

Лето 1854 года. Лондон становится одним из первых современных городов в мире. Но, не имея инфраструктуры — вывоз мусора, чистая вода, канализация, необходимые для поддержки быстрорастущего населения, огромный город стал идеальным местом для возникновения страшной болезни, перед которой оказались невластны все ученые и врачи. По мере того как начинается вспышка холеры, главные герои книги ведут расследование и в конечном итоге решают самую неотложную медицинскую загадку своего времени.

Почему многие великие изобретения и открытия были сделаны почти случайно? И почему другие замечательные идеи остались незамеченными и были надолго забыты? Автор этой книги, популярный американский писатель, журналист и интернет-гуру Стивен Джонсон, напоминает: даже гениальной идее требуется питательная среда, в которой идея сможет полностью реализовать свой потенциал. Как же создать такую среду? Привлекая в качестве иллюстраций примеры из самых разных областей - от истории науки до борьбы с терроризмом, - автор предлагает несколько практических "инструментов вдохновения"… Необходимая книга для каждого, кто хочет повысить собственную…

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Mind Wide Open comes a groundbreaking assessment of popular culture as it's never been considered before: through the lens of intelligence.

The $10 billion video gaming industry is now the second-largest segment of the entertainment industry in the United States, outstripping film and far surpassing books. Reality television shows featuring silicone-stuffed CEO wannabes and bug-eating adrenaline junkies dominate the ratings. But prominent social and cultural critic Steven Johnson argues that our popular culture has never been smarter.

Drawing from fields as diverse as neuroscience, economics, and literary theory, Johnson argues that the junk culture we're so eager to dismiss is in fact making us more intelligent. A video game will never be a book, Johnson acknowledges, nor should it aspire to be-and, in fact, video games, from Tetris to The Sims to Grand Theft Auto, have been shown to raise IQ scores and develop cognitive abilities that can't be learned from books. Likewise, successful television, when examined closely and taken seriously, reveals surprising narrative sophistication and intellectual demands.

Startling, provocative, and endlessly engaging, Everything Bad Is Good for You is a hopeful and spirited account of contemporary culture. Elegantly and convincingly, Johnson demonstrates that our culture is not declining but changing-in exciting and stimulating ways we'd do well to understand. You will never regard the glow of the video game or television screen the same way again.

This book is about the mystery of why the whole is sometimes smarter than the sum of its parts. Emergence is what happens when an interconnected system of relatively simple elements self-organizes to form more

If a newspaper came out once every hundred years, what would the banner headline be? Extra Life argues it would be the doubling of global life expectancy, from roughly 35 years at the end of the Great Influenza, to more than 70 today. With this book—and the companion PBS series—I wanted both to celebrate that extraordinary achievement, but also understand and document the main factors that made it possible. It’s a love song in many ways to the unsung heroes of public health—more urgent than ever in the age of COVID.

A return to the narrative style of The Ghost Map, Enemy tells the true story of the 18th-century pirate Henry Every, who pulls off one of the largest heists in the history of crime, and triggers the world’s first global manhunt. It’s a nautical thriller that’s also story about the birth of modern capitalism and tabloid media. “Thoroughly engrossing,” according to The Wall Street Journal. “A spirited, suspenseful, economically told tale whose significance is manifest and whose pace never flags.”

A book about the art and science of life’s most difficult choices. If you’ve enjoyed some of the cross-disciplinary storytelling in my previous books, there is a lot in that vein to enjoy in Farsighted. It features stories drawn from critical decisions in urban planning — New York’s decision to bury Collect Pond in the early 1800s, and to build the High Line in the early 2000s — alongside stories of hard choices drawn from military history, most notably the decision process that led to the raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound in 2011. There are insights drawn from cognitive science, behavioral psychology, and sociology—but also from novels like Middlemarch. My hope is that you will come out of reading the book with a practice for making hard choices in your own life, whether those choices are personal, professional, or civic ones.

A look at the world-changing innovations we made while keeping ourselves entertained. A sequel of sorts to How We Got to Now, Wonderland examines the many ways in which serious advances in science, technology and society have been propelled by games, fashion, music, illusion, food — and people just trying to have fun.

From the New York Times–bestselling author of Where Good Ideas Come From and Everything Bad Is Good for You, a new look at the power and legacy of great ideas.

In this illustrated history, Steven Johnson explores the history of innovation over centuries, tracing facets of modern life (refrigeration, clocks, and eyeglass lenses, to name a few) from their creation by hobbyists, amateurs, and entrepreneurs to their unintended historical consequences. Filled with surprising stories of accidental genius and brilliant mistakes—from the French publisher who invented the phonograph before Edison but forgot to include playback, to the Hollywood movie star who helped invent the technology behind Wi-Fi and Bluetooth—How We Got to Now investigates the secret history behind the everyday objects of contemporary life.

In his trademark style, Johnson examines unexpected connections between seemingly unrelated fields: how the invention of air-conditioning enabled the largest migration of human beings in the history of the species—to cities such as Dubai or Phoenix, which would otherwise be virtually uninhabitable; how pendulum clocks helped trigger the industrial revolution; and how clean water made it possible to manufacture computer chips. Accompanied by a major six-part television series on PBS, How We Got to Now is the story of collaborative networks building the modern world, written in the provocative, informative, and engaging style that has earned Johnson fans around the globe.

Combining the deft social analysis of WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM with the optimistic arguments of EVERYTHING BAD IS GOOD FOR YOU, New York Times bestselling author and one of the most inspiring visionaries of contemporary culture, Steven Johnson, maps the ways a connected world will be both different and better.
Steven Johnson proposes that a new model of political change is on the rise transforming everything from local government to classrooms to health care. It's a compelling new political worldview that breaks with traditional categories of liberal or conservative thinking. Johnson explores this innovative vision through a series of fascinating narratives: from the MIRACLE ON THE HUDSON to the planning of the French railway system; from the battle against malnutrition in Vietnam to a mysterious outbreak of strange smells in downtown Manhattan; from underground music video artists to the invention of the Internet itself. At a time when the conventional wisdom holds that the political system is hopelessly gridlocked with old ideas, FUTURE PERFECT makes the timely and uplifting case that progress is still possible.

The amazing story of Joseph Priestley — scientist and theologian, protégé of Benjamin Franklin, friend of Thomas Jefferson — an eighteenth-century radical thinker who played pivotal roles in the invention of ecosystem science, the discovery of oxygen, the uses of oxygen, scientific experimentation, the founding of the Unitarian Church, and the intellectual development of the United States. My version of a founding fathers book, and a reminder that most of the Enlightenment was driven by open source ideals.

A tour of today's cutting-edge brain research challenges readers to reevaluate the essence of human personality and fate, explaining how the brain predicts and processes events, describing breakthroughs in biofeedback technology, citing the sources of creativity and ideas, and offering insight into brain neurochemistry.

Book DescriptionThe countdown has begun and Earth is in jeopardy once more! Bill Lewis is once again flung into events beyond his control when he learns that the evil, reptilian aliens known as the Others have begun construction of a

Book Description Mercury Rapids: The Thoth Imperative continues the mayhem that has become Bill Lewis' life. Desperate to eradicate all evidence of their 'great mistake', the Greys have employed a sinister new race with a single goal in

From the bestselling author of Everything Bad is Good for You, Steven Johnson's The Invention of Air tells the incredible story of scientist and radical Joseph Priestley, who invented soda water, discovered oxygen, and incited rioting with his political views.
In 1794, Joseph Priestley - amateur scientist, ordained minister and radical thinker - set sail for America to escape persecution. Steven Johnson tells his incredible story: the discovery of oxygen, the inve

'The book is a house of wonders' The New York Times
'Steven Johnson is the Darwin of technology' Walter Issacson, author of Steve Jobs
What connects Paleolithic bone flutes to the invention of computer software? Or the Murex sea snail to the death of the great American city? How does the bag of crisps you hold in your hand help tell the story of humanity itself?
In his brilliant new work on the history of innovation, international bestseller Ste

In this hip, erudite manifesto, Steven Johnson bridges the gap that yawns between technology and the arts. Drawing on his own expertise in the humanities and on the Web, Steven Johnson not only demonstrates how interfaces-those buttons,