I really appreciate this! Thanks. I think focusing on wonder might be the way of providing a kind of healthy medium between those extreme utopian and dystopian approaches.
I want to give people a sense of the breadth of the book, hence the introduction (and I had thought that it might be too confusing, jumping into the middle of things...). But reasonable point.
Glad you enjoyed the intro! In terms of the meat, there’s only so much that can be provided in an introduction, but I did step through the chapters at the end, explaining a bit of what is to come (though obviously not the meat itself: that’s found in the chapters themselves!).
But in terms of code itself, I do my best to convey how programming (and the world of code) feels. Admittedly, this is hard to do, but I talk about everything from different programming languages and what they are all about (and their vibes) to the unexpected power of global variables.
There is also a ton of computing history to be found in the book, which I think is vital for understanding the tech world (and building whatever comes next). We often see a certain amount of historical ignorance in tech, and that feels like a recipe for missing context, or unnecessary reinvention, or just plain not understanding the path dependence of this world. So I really try to explore that a lot.
I imagine some of these things are in the eye of the beholder, but I would consider it closer to a traditional startup, though it certainly has research components (as do many other startups).
I've been exploring the landscape of new types of research institutes/organizations, with a catalog of my findings here: https://arbesman.net/overedge/ I'm happy to discuss the possibilities for research orgs, so please feel free to reach out.
Thanks so much! I'm glad you appreciate this. I'll reach out separately to learn more about your current position. And there are a number of for-profit organizations included, though I tried to focus on ones that are more unorthodox than traditional startups.