Virtual Unreality - by Charles Seife (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The author of Zero and Proofiness explains how to tell truth from fantasy in the digital world, and why it matters

Today, the Internet allows us to spread information faster and to more people than ever before--never mind whether it's true or not. In Virtual Unreality, mathematician, science reporter, and journalist watchdog Charles Seife takes us deep into the information jungle and cuts a path through the trickery, fakery, and cyber skullduggery that the Internet enables. Providing a much-needed toolkit to help separate fact from fiction, Seife, with his trademark wit and skepticism, addresses the problems that face us every time we turn on our computers and Google our most recent medical symptoms, read a politician's tweet, fact-check something on Wikipedia, or start an online relationship. Let the clicker beware.

Review Quotes

Praise for Virtual Unreality

"Mr. Seife (a professor of journalism at New York University and the author of five books on science and math) . . . is a meticulous writer, and he quickly won me over--unfortunately. . . . [H]is portrait is persuasive and thus disconcerting and frightening."
--Howard Schneider, The Wall Street Journal

"Virtual Unreality is a talisman we gullible can wield in the hope that we won't get fooled again."
--Dwight Garner, The New York Times

"Intense and incisive, Seife's exposé of potent tricks on the mesmerizing, overpowering Internet makes us very wary about anything that cannot be verified with our own eyes."
--Publishers Weekly

"An ingenious overview of a wildly unreliable Internet."
-- Kirkus (starred review)

"A cogent, balanced, quietly impassioned call for Internet skepticism."
--Nature

"Seife proves meticulous in amassing much of what we know about the perils of the Internet and explaining its significance for anyone trying to separate truth from falsehood . . . informed, nimble, endlessly quotable, and timely . . . an indispensable guide to almost everything sinister about the Internet."
--Christian Science Monitor

Praise for Sun in a Bottle

"A model of what scientific history should be."
--The Washington Times
Praise for Alpha and Omega

"Dispatches from science's front lines . . . spiced with fresh discoveries and dsiputes."
--Los Angeles Times

Praise for Zero

"Written with clarity and infectious enthusiasm that are rare in science writing, and practically unknown among those who dare to explain mathematics. Zero is really something."
--The Washington Post

Praise for Decoding the Universe

"For the former liberal arts major and other right-brainers, Seife is the man."
--Salon.com -- Charles Seife

About the Author

Charles Seife is the author of five previous books, including Proofiness and Zero, which won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for first nonfiction and was a New York Times notable book. He has written for a wide variety of publications, including The New York Times, Wired, New Scientist, Science, Scientific American, and The Economist. He is a professor of journalism at New York University and lives in New York City.