Understanding the Digital World
What You Need to Know about Computers, the Internet, Privacy, and Security, Third Edition
Will be published approx. on 12. January 2027
Book
Hardback
312 pages
978-0-691-29720-0 (ISBN)
Description
The popular introductory textbook that explains how computer hardware, software, and networks work-now fully updated for today's fast-changing digital age
Understanding the Digital World has established itself as the essential computer science textbook for nonmajors and a must-read for anyone who wants to know more about computers and communications. It explains how computers are built and how they compute, what programming is, how the Internet and the web work, Python programming, AI and machine learning, the inherent limitations of computers, and much more. Now completely updated, this informative and accessible book covers all facets of the digital world, revealing how computers affect security, privacy, property, and many other vital social, political, and economic issues.
Now covers large language models and chatbots like ChatGPT
Features timely new discussions of how LLMs are changing how we live and work, including how the use of AI is transforming programming itself
Gives updated examples of new technologies like self-driving cars and how they affect us
Provides added coverage of data breaches, facial recognition and biometrics, tracking, and other privacy issues
Offers expanded coverage of hardware like multiple cores and GPUs
Additional historical discussions cover topics such as Leibniz's work on binary numbers
Includes suggestions for further reading and a glossary of technical terms and buzzwords
Understanding the Digital World has established itself as the essential computer science textbook for nonmajors and a must-read for anyone who wants to know more about computers and communications. It explains how computers are built and how they compute, what programming is, how the Internet and the web work, Python programming, AI and machine learning, the inherent limitations of computers, and much more. Now completely updated, this informative and accessible book covers all facets of the digital world, revealing how computers affect security, privacy, property, and many other vital social, political, and economic issues.
Now covers large language models and chatbots like ChatGPT
Features timely new discussions of how LLMs are changing how we live and work, including how the use of AI is transforming programming itself
Gives updated examples of new technologies like self-driving cars and how they affect us
Provides added coverage of data breaches, facial recognition and biometrics, tracking, and other privacy issues
Offers expanded coverage of hardware like multiple cores and GPUs
Additional historical discussions cover topics such as Leibniz's work on binary numbers
Includes suggestions for further reading and a glossary of technical terms and buzzwords
Reviews / Votes
""[Kernighan's] credentials as a computer scientist are stellar but what comes through in this book is a humanitarian concern about the place of technology in the modern world. . . . The grounding [the book] provides in the fundamentals of computing and how the technology interacts with our lives will remain relevant for a very long time."-Steve Mansfield-Devine, Network Security"More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
58 color + 60 b/w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 254 mm
Width: 178 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-691-29720-0 (9780691297200)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Brian W. Kernighan is professor of computer science at Princeton University. His many books include Millions, Billions, Zillions: Defending Yourself in a World of Too Many Numbers (Princeton) and The C Programming Language.