{"product_id":"the-computers-voice-from-star-trek-to-siri-hardback-9781517909758","title":"The Computer's Voice; From Star Trek to Siri (Hardback) 9781517909758","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eThe Computer's Voice\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eFrom Star Trek to Siri\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eLiz W. Faber (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781517909758\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 22 December 2020\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e256 pages\u003cbr\u003e21.6 x 14 x 2.5 cm, 0.43 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"In this elegant book, Liz W. Faber plays intellectual alchemist, swirling methodologies to unearth the roots of our sociological interactions with digital technologies via the auditory, and not merely the visual domain. \u003ci\u003eThe Computer’s Voice\u003c\/i\u003e furthers our belated attention to the soundtrack, both of our media texts but also our lived experience, by deftly deploying feminist theories of (dis)embodiment.\"-Walter Metz, Southern Illinois University\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Liz W. Faber has written a highly accessible and fascinating history of talking computers, from evil sci-fi mainframes to the smartphones we keep in our pockets. This deep dive into computing, vocalization, and gender explains how the digitized voices we often take for granted have a hidden history and politics all their own.\"-Mar Hicks, author of \u003ci\u003eProgrammed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Computer’s Voice\u003c\/i\u003e is an ambitious theoretical project, but also a well-argued and informative interdisciplinary study of the intersections between popular culture, gender, and computer history.\"-\u003ci\u003eAncillary Review \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Faber's grasp of computer vocalizing as an instrument not only of humanizing technology but also of ‘genderizing’ discourse allows her to consider myriad aspects of sentient ‘computer life.’\"-\u003ci\u003eCHOICE\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA deconstruction of gender through the voices of Siri, HAL 9000, and other computers that talk\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Although computer-based personal assistants like Siri are increasingly ubiquitous, few users stop to ask what it means that some assistants are gendered female, others male. Why is \u003ci\u003eStar Trek\u003c\/i\u003e’s computer coded as female, while HAL 9000 in \u003ci\u003e2001: A Space Odyssey\u003c\/i\u003e is heard as male? By examining how gender is built into these devices, author Liz W. Faber explores contentious questions around gender: its fundamental constructedness, the rigidity of the gender binary, and culturally situated attitudes on male and female embodiment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFaber begins by considering talking spaceships like those in \u003ci\u003eStar Trek\u003c\/i\u003e, the film \u003ci\u003eDark Star\u003c\/i\u003e, and the TV series \u003ci\u003eQuark\u003c\/i\u003e, revealing the ideologies that underlie space-age progress. She then moves on to an intrepid decade-by-decade investigation of computer voices, tracing the evolution from the masculine voices of the ’70s and ’80s to the feminine ones of the ’90s and ’00s. Faber ends her account in the present, with incisive looks at the film \u003ci\u003eHer\u003c\/i\u003e and Siri herself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGoing beyond current scholarship on robots and AI to focus on voice-interactive computers, \u003ci\u003eThe Computer’s Voice\u003c\/i\u003e breaks new ground in questions surrounding media, technology, and gender. It makes important contributions to conversations around the gender gap and the increasing acceptance of transgender people. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Univ Of Minnesota Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52619252564248,"sku":"9781517909758","price":65.59,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/the-computers-voice-from-star-trek-to-siri-hardback-9781517909758","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}