The Pentagons Brain, Annie Jacobsen
The Pentagons Brain, Annie Jacobsen
4 Rating(s)
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The Pentagon's Brain
An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency

Author: Annie Jacobsen

Narrator: Annie Jacobsen

Unabridged: 18 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/22/2015

Synopsis

Discover the definitive history of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, in this Pulitzer Prize finalist from the author of the New York Times bestseller Area 51.
No one has ever written the history of the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful, and most controversial military science R&D agency. In the first-ever history about the organization, New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents, and declassified memos to paint a picture of DARPA, or "the Pentagon's brain," from its Cold War inception in 1958 to the present.

This is the book on DARPA -- a compelling narrative about this clandestine intersection of science and the American military and the often frightening results.

About Annie Jacobsen

Annie Jacobsen is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Area 51 and Operation Paperclip and the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Pentagon's Brain. She was a contributing editor at the Los Angeles Times Magazine. A graduate of Princeton University, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons.

Reviews

Goodreads review by HillbillyWizard on October 02, 2020

I know that Mark Twain said, "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." However, I cannot find who first said, "Never let the details ruin a good story." There is not a word in the English language to describe how overly verbose this lady is. The DARPA technology really started getting in......more

Goodreads review by Mal on April 06, 2017

If you’re familiar with the history of the computer industry, you’re no doubt aware that the Internet was conceived and developed by a U.S. Government agency called DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). You may also know that the same agency invented GPS, the Global Positioning Syste......more

Goodreads review by Barb on December 28, 2016

I listened to the audiobook while traveling 32 hours (door-to-door) from Africa to the U.S. The audio, narrated by the author, was over 18 hours and never failed to put me to sleep. Bulging with fascinating details, it lulled me to sleep with all its names and acronyms at times, but kept me awake ot......more

Goodreads review by Joe on March 26, 2017

This is a terribly biased (Hollywood/LA Times)version of the amazing stories of ARPA/DARPA achievements and their influences on our world. Most of the stuff in here is well known. I was even involved in some of them. But the whole book is laced with the author's storytelling speculation and extreme......more

Goodreads review by Annette on February 14, 2016

Repetitive. Lackadaisically edited. Could have been 200-300 pages shorter. Could have been interesting. Reads like it was written for a dozen or more magazine articles...in different magazines. Admittedly though, it does speak about some projects in AI and bioengineering that are pretty darn disturb......more

Quotes

Pulitzer Prize Finalist in History

One of The Washington Post's Notable Nonfiction Books of 2015

One of The Boston Globe's Best Books of 2015

One of Amazon's Top 100 Books of 2015

"A brilliantly researched account of a small but powerful secret government agency whose military research profoundly affects world affairs."—The Pulitzer Prize Committee

"Filled with the intrigue and high stakes of a spy novel, Jacobsen's history of DARPA is as much a fascinating testament to human ingenuity as it is a paean to endless industrial warfare and the bureaucracy of the military-industrial complex."—Kirkus Reviews

"A fascinating and unsettling portrait of the secretive U.S. government agency....Jacobsen walks a fine line in telling the story of the agency and its innovations without coming across as a cheerleader or a critic, or letting the narrative devolve into a salacious tell-all. Jacobsen's ability to objectively tell the story of DARPA, not to mention its murky past, is truly remarkable, making for a terrifically well-crafted treatise on the agency most Americans know next to nothing about."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Jacobsen offers a definitive history of the clandestine agency.... She explores the implications of DARPA work on technology that will not be widely known to the public for generations but will certainly impact national security and concepts of war."—Vanessa Bush, Booklist (starred review)

"Jacobsen's account will serve as the model for histories of military research and development and is likely to lead to more works and articles about DARPA.... Engrossing, conversation-starting read..."—Library Journal

"Annie Jacobsen's considerable talents as an investigative journalist prove indispensable in uncovering the remarkable history of one of America's most powerful and clandestine military research agencies. And she is a great storyteller, making the tantalizing tale of The Pentagon's Brain -- from the depths of the Cold War to present day -- come alive on every page."—Gerald Posner, author of God's Bankers

"A fascinating and sometimes uneasy exploration of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency...."—Dina Temple-Raston, The Washington Post

"In this fascinating and terrifying account, Annie Jacobsen regales us with the stories behind the agency's 'consequential and sometimes Orwellian' innovations, including autonomous weapons systems--killer robots that could decide, without human intervention, who lives and who dies."—Bryan Schatz, Mother Jones

"Annie Jacobsen has a gift for unearthing secret, long-buried information."—Mary Ann Gwinn, Seattle Times

"An exciting read that asks an important question: what is the risk of allowing lethal technologies to be developed in secret?"—Ann Finkbeiner, Nature

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