Penguin Books Australia

You write an email. You hit send. It appears ten thousand miles away. How did that happen?

In April 2011, a seventy-five year old woman deprived Armenia of its internet access when she sliced through a buried cable with her garden spade. That January, Egyptian authorities simply switched off 70% of the country's internet connections in an attempt to quell a revolution. In 2009, a squirrel chewed through...

'WARNING: This book contains painful truths for journalists and politicians.  It provides a pitiless, first-hand exposure of the trivialisation of our national discourse by the media, aided and abetted by the political classes.' ALAN KOHLER

'As this thoughtful analysis reveals, the mere existence of a new global information warehouse doesn't guarantee it will change the secretive habits of a lifetime.' – Eric Beecher, chairman, Crikey

'With insight and clarity, Micah Sifry explores the red-hot spot where politics and the internet intersect.  An indispensable resource for the future fight over secrecy and openness.' –...

EVERYONE KNOWS MOBILE PHONES ARE SAFE.
IF THEY WEREN'T, WE'D ALREADY KNOW
ABOUT IT, RIGHT?

That is perhaps the greatest disconnect of our age.  As research scientists ate now demonstrating, mobile-phone radiation can damage the human body's cells – leading to memory loss, and increased risk of cancer, reduced sperm counts, and neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's and possibly even...

A crisp, passionately argued answer to the question that everyone who's grown dependent on digital devices is asking: 'Where's the rest of my life?'

A primer on new inventions, technologies and events transforming our lives.

Massive Change is a modern, illustrated primer on the new inventions, technologies, and events that are affecting the human race worldwide. This book is part of a broader research project by Bruce Mau Design, intended to provoke debate and discussion about the future of design culture - defined generally as the 'familiar objects...

'Fabulous – I couldn't put it down and shouted out Yes! Yes! on many pages . . . a landmark book that will have people talking and arguing for years into the future'
Lee Smolin

Something went wrong around the start of the twenty-first century. The crowd was wise. Social networks replaced individual creativity. There were more places to express ourselves than ever before . . . yet no...

'Spencer Wells – explorer, geneticist, geographer and author – takes us on an exciting tour of the last 10,000 years of our history in order to forewarn us of what we shall have to deal with in the next 50 years'  JARED DIAMOND, AUTHOR OF GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL AND COLLAPSE

We have better and more comfortable lives in the Western world than we did a few generations ago. So why aren't...