EE380 for Wednesday, March  8, was to have been a book report on PALO ALTO: A HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA, CAPITALISM, AND THE WORLD by Malcom Harris.  Reviews from NY Times, WashPo, Guardian, Wired and elsewhere are guarded, cool to lukewarm at best. I got my copy last night and have read or skimmed most of the 700 pages.  I was appaled.  The author has not responded to my email.

The index has just under 30 pages of double column entries. I thought after many decades of residency, that I was pretty well connected in Palo Alto, but I don't even have name recognition for most of the names in the index.  The content covers the waterfront but does not seem to come close to the endorsement on the back cover from Greg Grandin:  "If you want to understand what is coming, you need to read this book".  I do agree with Kirkus, this book is "breathtaking in its audacity”, but it is agit-prop audacity not insight..  Everyone who responded to my queries who had knowledge of the contents has said that the book itself is toxic, at best.

My concern is that many people will believe that the book recounts historical facts and presents a true picture of the culture and community. It does not. There is no alternative truth.

I found myself wondering if this was the product of a chatGPT bot gone mad..

For EE380 today the program will slip to Plan B, a recorded program from our archives.  Sorry for the late announcement.   The archive program you should watch is:

Peter McMahon, Computing with Physical Systems

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFJKAbXMc1U&list=PLoROMvodv4rMWw6rRoeSpkiseTHzWj6vu&index=9&t=48s