Reading · Summer 2026 Reading from MIT

The Comedy of Computation: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Obsolescence

Benjamin Mangrum

Technology & society

The Comedy of Computation: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Obsolescence

By Benjamin Mangrum, associate professor of literature

Stanford University Press · 2025

We often deal with our doubts and fears about computing through humor, whether reconciling ourselves to machines or critiquing them. In fact, this dynamic turns up throughout modern culture, in movies, television, fiction, and the theater. Mangrum analyzes this phenomenon in "The Comedy of Computation," digging into several facets of modern culture and technology.

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From Summer 2026 recommended reading from MIT (MIT News). Cover image via Google Books.

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