Technobabble [Hardcover]

John A. Barry (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0262023334 | ISBN-13: 978-0262023337 | Publication Date: October 1991

The computer revolution, like many of the technologies that preceded, is producing an abundance of new terms and catchphrases that are making their way into the English language. In this lively account, computerese expert John A. Barry chronicles an important linguistic development which he has termed "technobabble": the pervasive and indiscriminate use of computer terminology, especially as it is applied to situations that have nothing at all to do with technology. "Technobabble examines the new computer lexicon from an etymological, historical, and anecdotal perspective. It reveals technobabble's origins among the "high priests" of the advanced research laboratories of the 1950s, describing the folkways by which this sublanguage becomes incorporated into the vocabulary of the larger society, and predicting some of the new dimensions technobabble is likely to assume in coming years. Barry details the technobabble style, which is characterized by logorrhea, excessive use of the passive voice, anthropomorphism, vague and abstract language, euphemism, obfuscation, solecism, synecdoche, and mangled metaphors. And he delves into technobabble's sexual, pharmacological, political, religious, and other connotations. Perhaps one of the most troubling implications of this new style of communicating, Barry points out, is that technobabble tends to apply a mechanistic lexicon to human interaction, while describing computer processes in human terms. These days, for example, many people do not merely converse with one another; they "interface. (Computers, on the other hand, are said to "talk to" each other.) It is not uncommon to hear people refer to their leisure hours as "downtime. In California'sSilicon Valley (the wellspring of much of the technobabble lexicon), getting something off one's chest is also known as "core-dumping. Conversely, computers are described as "thinking" and "remembering, " and computer programs are commonly given the pronoun "he." John A. Barry is the coauthor of nine books, including the best-seller "Sunburst: The Ascent of Sun Microsystems. He is editor-in-chief of "SunWorld magazine for which he writes "lex, " a computer language column.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Well researched, lively, entertaining, and ought to be required reading for every computer journalist, PR agent, and marketing executive in the business."
—Wendy Grossman, New Scientist



"Technobabble is a remarkable opus, categorizing and tracing the etymology of literally thousands of computer terms now in common use. In the Process, Barry gives the reader an eclectic lesson in the history of the computer industry and a revealing took at the way that techies think. "
—Simson L. Garfinkel, Christian Science Monitor



"A serious study of the language of the new technocracy."
—William Safire, The New York Times Magazine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

John Barry is Deputy Director and Reader in Politics at the Institute of Governance, Public Policy, and Social Research at Queens University, Belfast. He is the author of Rethinking Green Politics and coeditor of the International Encyclopedia of Environmental Politics. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 284 pages
• Publisher: Mit Pr (October 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262023334
• ISBN-13: 978-0262023337
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,004,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars insightful book, May 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Technobabble (Paperback)

this book does very well at helping us understand computer lingo, though it might be slightly over the head of some people. A highly original book

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very long winded with little to recommend it, April 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Technobabble (Paperback)

This book offered so much and delivered very little. If you're looking to discover why "byte" is spelt the way it is or where the term originated from, you won't find it here.

Unless you are well coached in the babble of English Lit then a lot of Barry's prose will go right over your head. He seems to have received most of his information from the Random House Unabridged Dictionary - every second pages seems to quote from it. If I were interested in what Random House had to say then I would have bought their dictionary and not this book!

Don't bother looking here for lively and interesting tales about how various words came to be, instead have a look at such books as Hackers, Digital Deli, The Devouing Fungus, The Naked Computer, and The Hackers Dictionary.