Patrick McCray
@patrickmccray.bsky.social
Professor @ UCSB => science + tech + environment
Kluge Chair in Technology & Society @ LoC, 2025-26
New book = https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262553483/readme/
Cairn kicker 🚵 🎣 🧗♂️⛷️🏄🏼♂️🏔 in Cali-rado.
More = https://www.patrickmccray.com
Kluge Chair in Technology & Society @ LoC, 2025-26
New book = https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262553483/readme/
Cairn kicker 🚵 🎣 🧗♂️⛷️🏄🏼♂️🏔 in Cali-rado.
More = https://www.patrickmccray.com
Pinned
My new book will be out in early December 2025 via
@mitpress.bsky.social
Details at: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255348...
#HistSci #Computing #History #Books 🗃️
@mitpress.bsky.social
Details at: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255348...
#HistSci #Computing #History #Books 🗃️
Happy Holidays!
December 25, 2025 at 4:37 AM
Happy Holidays!
Happy holidays! Here’s hoping next year treats us all a little better.
December 24, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Happy holidays! Here’s hoping next year treats us all a little better.
Stop. This. Crap. Writing.
December 23, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Stop. This. Crap. Writing.
Situation report, headed for Kiso Valley.
December 22, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Situation report, headed for Kiso Valley.
Situation report, headed for Kiso Valley.
December 22, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Situation report, headed for Kiso Valley.
Reposted by Patrick McCray
Let's buy a holiday gift for EVERY child in Denver's public housing. Even $5 helps. You've raised $40,000 so far. No child should go without a gift this holiday season. Thank you for your generosity!
December 21, 2025 at 4:01 AM
Let's buy a holiday gift for EVERY child in Denver's public housing. Even $5 helps. You've raised $40,000 so far. No child should go without a gift this holiday season. Thank you for your generosity!
Reposted by Patrick McCray
"A wonderfully readable look at the interface between book history & computer history." — @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social
In "README," historian @patrickmccray.bsky.socials uses the oldest literary technology—books—to explain how computers became popular. Available now: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255348...
In "README," historian @patrickmccray.bsky.socials uses the oldest literary technology—books—to explain how computers became popular. Available now: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255348...
December 20, 2025 at 10:40 PM
"A wonderfully readable look at the interface between book history & computer history." — @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social
In "README," historian @patrickmccray.bsky.socials uses the oldest literary technology—books—to explain how computers became popular. Available now: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255348...
In "README," historian @patrickmccray.bsky.socials uses the oldest literary technology—books—to explain how computers became popular. Available now: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255348...
Reposted by Patrick McCray
In the 1960s, a group of New Jersey teenagers helped make computing personal...
(An excerpt from my new book in IEEE Spectrum)
spectrum.ieee.org/teenage-hack...
#HistSci #computing #History 🗃️
(An excerpt from my new book in IEEE Spectrum)
spectrum.ieee.org/teenage-hack...
#HistSci #computing #History 🗃️
The RESISTORS: Teen Hackers Who Saw and Lived the Future of Computing
In the 1960s, before PCs and the Internet were a thing, the RESISTORS were O.G. computer hackers, learning to code on old mainframes in a New Jersey barn.
spectrum.ieee.org
December 12, 2025 at 7:35 PM
In the 1960s, a group of New Jersey teenagers helped make computing personal...
(An excerpt from my new book in IEEE Spectrum)
spectrum.ieee.org/teenage-hack...
#HistSci #computing #History 🗃️
(An excerpt from my new book in IEEE Spectrum)
spectrum.ieee.org/teenage-hack...
#HistSci #computing #History 🗃️
Reposted by Patrick McCray
Via Dag Spicer at @computerhistory.bsky.social, this very cool photo. "Textverarbeitung" was the original German coinage for "word processing," a marketing category IBM would introduce and develop starting in the mid-1960s. (Much more about this in my book TRACK CHANGES.) cc @tillheilmann.info
December 20, 2025 at 3:39 AM
Via Dag Spicer at @computerhistory.bsky.social, this very cool photo. "Textverarbeitung" was the original German coinage for "word processing," a marketing category IBM would introduce and develop starting in the mid-1960s. (Much more about this in my book TRACK CHANGES.) cc @tillheilmann.info
Tis the season…
December 20, 2025 at 3:58 AM
Tis the season…
Kyoto sunset. On to Naoshima Island…
December 20, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Kyoto sunset. On to Naoshima Island…
Himeji Castle at sunset.
December 18, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Himeji Castle at sunset.
Reposted by Patrick McCray
In this issue:
-Articles on infrastructure & astronomy (Eun-Joo Ahn) & ocean drilling (Beatriz Martinez-Rius)
-@mbaldwin.bsky.social's review of books by @patrickmccray.bsky.social, @ccmmody.bsky.social & Mark Solovey
-James Hofmann's essay on the current state of Ampère historiography #histSTM
-Articles on infrastructure & astronomy (Eun-Joo Ahn) & ocean drilling (Beatriz Martinez-Rius)
-@mbaldwin.bsky.social's review of books by @patrickmccray.bsky.social, @ccmmody.bsky.social & Mark Solovey
-James Hofmann's essay on the current state of Ampère historiography #histSTM
December 17, 2025 at 10:27 PM
In this issue:
-Articles on infrastructure & astronomy (Eun-Joo Ahn) & ocean drilling (Beatriz Martinez-Rius)
-@mbaldwin.bsky.social's review of books by @patrickmccray.bsky.social, @ccmmody.bsky.social & Mark Solovey
-James Hofmann's essay on the current state of Ampère historiography #histSTM
-Articles on infrastructure & astronomy (Eun-Joo Ahn) & ocean drilling (Beatriz Martinez-Rius)
-@mbaldwin.bsky.social's review of books by @patrickmccray.bsky.social, @ccmmody.bsky.social & Mark Solovey
-James Hofmann's essay on the current state of Ampère historiography #histSTM
Reposted by Patrick McCray
“If you want to teach someone how to do something, you had to let them sit at the keyboard.”
Today's #histSTM & #histtech lunchtime read: @spectrum.ieee.org shares an excerpt from @patrickmccray.bsky.social's new book (README) featuring the RESISTORS, a NJ-based group of 1960s computer hobbyists.
Today's #histSTM & #histtech lunchtime read: @spectrum.ieee.org shares an excerpt from @patrickmccray.bsky.social's new book (README) featuring the RESISTORS, a NJ-based group of 1960s computer hobbyists.
The RESISTORS: Teen Hackers Who Saw and Lived the Future of Computing
In the 1960s, before PCs and the Internet were a thing, the RESISTORS were O.G. computer hackers, learning to code on old mainframes in a New Jersey barn.
spectrum.ieee.org
December 17, 2025 at 6:02 PM
“If you want to teach someone how to do something, you had to let them sit at the keyboard.”
Today's #histSTM & #histtech lunchtime read: @spectrum.ieee.org shares an excerpt from @patrickmccray.bsky.social's new book (README) featuring the RESISTORS, a NJ-based group of 1960s computer hobbyists.
Today's #histSTM & #histtech lunchtime read: @spectrum.ieee.org shares an excerpt from @patrickmccray.bsky.social's new book (README) featuring the RESISTORS, a NJ-based group of 1960s computer hobbyists.
Reposted by Patrick McCray
pouring one out for everyone in my academic literary and cultural studies networks who'd said during my critical university studies PhD "well at least universities provide us with jobs, i'm grateful for that" -- sincerely
Carnegie Mellon’s literature PhD is being liquidated in favor of “computation,” casualized labor, and AI.
That has profound ramifications for, students, faculty, and program alums like myself.
I wrote it about it (w/ Catherine Evans, a current PhD student).
www.chronicle.com/article/a-co...
That has profound ramifications for, students, faculty, and program alums like myself.
I wrote it about it (w/ Catherine Evans, a current PhD student).
www.chronicle.com/article/a-co...
Opinion | A Coup at Carnegie Mellon?
The university is replacing the humanities with more computers.
www.chronicle.com
December 15, 2025 at 11:08 PM
pouring one out for everyone in my academic literary and cultural studies networks who'd said during my critical university studies PhD "well at least universities provide us with jobs, i'm grateful for that" -- sincerely
Since the news is so awful, here is a picture of some snow monkeys I saw the other day. I hope it cheers you up.
December 15, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Since the news is so awful, here is a picture of some snow monkeys I saw the other day. I hope it cheers you up.
Reposted by Patrick McCray
Sprightly new piece from @patrickmccray.bsky.social on some wholesome hackers from Princeton, NJ. My only regret is that they missed out on one hell of a band name.
In the 1960s, a group of New Jersey teenagers helped make computing personal...
(An excerpt from my new book in IEEE Spectrum)
spectrum.ieee.org/teenage-hack...
#HistSci #computing #History 🗃️
(An excerpt from my new book in IEEE Spectrum)
spectrum.ieee.org/teenage-hack...
#HistSci #computing #History 🗃️
The RESISTORS: Teen Hackers Who Saw and Lived the Future of Computing
In the 1960s, before PCs and the Internet were a thing, the RESISTORS were O.G. computer hackers, learning to code on old mainframes in a New Jersey barn.
spectrum.ieee.org
December 12, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Sprightly new piece from @patrickmccray.bsky.social on some wholesome hackers from Princeton, NJ. My only regret is that they missed out on one hell of a band name.
In the 1960s, a group of New Jersey teenagers helped make computing personal...
(An excerpt from my new book in IEEE Spectrum)
spectrum.ieee.org/teenage-hack...
#HistSci #computing #History 🗃️
(An excerpt from my new book in IEEE Spectrum)
spectrum.ieee.org/teenage-hack...
#HistSci #computing #History 🗃️
The RESISTORS: Teen Hackers Who Saw and Lived the Future of Computing
In the 1960s, before PCs and the Internet were a thing, the RESISTORS were O.G. computer hackers, learning to code on old mainframes in a New Jersey barn.
spectrum.ieee.org
December 12, 2025 at 7:35 PM
In the 1960s, a group of New Jersey teenagers helped make computing personal...
(An excerpt from my new book in IEEE Spectrum)
spectrum.ieee.org/teenage-hack...
#HistSci #computing #History 🗃️
(An excerpt from my new book in IEEE Spectrum)
spectrum.ieee.org/teenage-hack...
#HistSci #computing #History 🗃️
Tokyo, mild earthquake
December 12, 2025 at 2:49 AM
Tokyo, mild earthquake
I think I can predict this one....
December 8, 2025 at 5:16 PM
I think I can predict this one....
Asia bound...three weeks, two bags.
December 7, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Asia bound...three weeks, two bags.