# Talking Tech *By Howard Rheingold and Howard Levine. William Morrow, New York, 1982; Quill paperback 1983.* > I did not read the book. It is a 1982 book still in copyright, and the only scan (Internet Archive `talkingtechconve0000rhei`, scanned 2023) is lending-only / print-disabled; I did not log in or borrow it. What I could see: the Library of Congress / Open Library / Internet Archive catalog records, Rheingold's own bibliography, Encyclopedia.com's author entry (which summarizes the *Publishers Weekly* and *Library Journal* reviews), bookseller listings, and short OCR snippets that Open Library's public "search inside" returns from the scan. Those snippets covered the **whole table of contents** (two-column OCR, which I re-ordered alphabetically) and a few lines from the preface, introduction and entries. So the outline in section 5 is complete for entry titles and nearly complete for start pages; what each entry says is known only from those short snippets. Related dossiers in this vault: the same two authors' [[Book Summaries/Rheingold, Howard/The Cognitive Connection - Howard Levine and Howard Rheingold|The Cognitive Connection]] (1987), and Rheingold's [[Book Summaries/Rheingold, Howard/The New Technology Coloring Book - Howard Rheingold|The New Technology Coloring Book]] (1983, same popular-science stretch), [[Book Summaries/Rheingold, Howard/Higher Creativity - Willis Harman and Howard Rheingold|Higher Creativity]], [[Book Summaries/Rheingold, Howard/Tools for Thought - Howard Rheingold|Tools for Thought]] and [[Book Summaries/Rheingold, Howard/They Have a Word for It - Howard Rheingold|They Have a Word for It]] (his other lexicon-style book). ## 1. Book facts | | | |---|---| | Title | *Talking Tech: A Conversational Guide to Science and Technology* | | Authors | Howard Rheingold and Howard Levine (by-statement: "by Howard Rheingold and Howard Levine"; Library of Congress main entry Rheingold, added entry "Levine, Howard, 1947-") | | Publisher | William Morrow (New York: Morrow), 1982, 1st ed. Paperback: Quill (Morrow's trade-paper imprint), New York, 1983, "1st Quill ed." | | Date | 1982 (Morrow hardcover). The LCCN 81014130 dates the cataloging to 1981; Goodreads shows "first published January 1, 1983" (the Quill printing); a later Open Library record from Amazon data says "October 1989" for ISBN 0688016030, probably a reprint/listing date | | ISBN | Hardcover 068800783X / 9780688007836; paperback (Quill) 0688016030 / 9780688016036 | | Other identifiers | LCCN 81014130 and 82021537; OCLC 7814234 (Morrow) and 8952701 (Quill); LC class T11 .R44; Dewey 601/.4; Open Library work OL3493697W, editions OL4268107M, OL3501265M, OL7725567M; Internet Archive `talkingtechconve0000rhei`; Goodreads 4540008 and 523219; LibraryThing 1523210 | | Physical | 324 pages, illustrations, 25 cm; includes bibliographies (a "Further reading" list per entry) and an index starting p. 319 | | Subjects | Science -- Terminology; Technology -- Terminology | | Form | A lexicon of **70 alphabetical entries**, "from acid rain to Zeno's paradox" (Encyclopedia.com; Oxfam listing), framed by a preface, an introduction and an epilogue | | Language | English | | Audiobook / ebook | None found | | Where it came up | Requested by Marshall on 2026-11-03 (his ask for all of Rheingold's books) | | Cover | [Open Library cover image](https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/14523701-L.jpg) | ## 2. Book resources **Free (legal).** - **Internet Archive (controlled lending).** [Talking tech scan, Morrow 1982](https://archive.org/details/talkingtechconve0000rhei), scanned May 2023. Access is restricted to borrowing and print-disabled readers; I did not log in or borrow it. Open Library also lists an older scan id `talkingtechconve00rhei` whose item no longer returns metadata. - **Open Library borrow.** [Work page](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL3493697W); the borrowable edition is [OL3501265M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL3501265M) (linked to the same scan; Open Library marks it "borrowable"). - **Libby/OverDrive.** Not available as far as I found: no ebook or audiobook edition exists. [OverDrive search](https://www.overdrive.com/search?q=Talking%20Tech%20Rheingold) to confirm with your library. - **Hoopla.** Not available (no digital edition found). - **Project Gutenberg.** Not applicable (a 1982 copyrighted book). - **Full text posted by the authors or publisher.** None found. **Paid.** - **Publisher.** William Morrow / Quill (now HarperCollins imprints); no current publisher product page found. Out of print. - **Amazon print.** [Hardcover, ISBN 068800783X](https://www.amazon.com/dp/068800783X) (Amazon search result showed William Morrow, 324 pages, one rating); [paperback, ISBN 0688016030](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0688016030) (link built from the ISBN; I did not open it). Used copies are the realistic route. - **Kindle.** Not available. Open Library's Quill record carries an Amazon id B007Q9TGJY, but that ASIN resolves to an unrelated World Bank report on British Guiana, so it is a bad catalog link, not a Kindle edition. - **Audible.** Not available (none found). **Catalogs.** [WorldCat, OCLC 7814234](https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/7814234) (Morrow) and [OCLC 8952701](https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/8952701) (Quill); [Google Books search by ISBN](https://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN068800783X); [Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4540008-talking-tech); [LibraryThing](https://www.librarything.com/work/1523210); [Library of Congress LCCN 81014130](https://lccn.loc.gov/81014130). ## 3. Author biographies **Howard Rheingold** (born July 7, 1947, Phoenix, Arizona; Reed College, 1968) is an American writer and teacher on the cultural and social effects of computers and communication media ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Rheingold)). *Talking Tech* is the first item in the non-fiction run of his [own bibliography](https://www.rheingold.com/howard/HowBiblio.html) ("with Howard Levine, 1982"), just before *New Technology Coloring Book* and *Higher Creativity*. In the early 1980s he wrote for the Institute of Noetic Sciences and did contract writing for Xerox PARC, which led to *Tools for Thought* (1985). He was an early member and host on the WELL, edited *Whole Earth Review*, was founding executive editor of HotWired (1994), founded Electric Minds (1996), and later taught at Stanford and UC Berkeley; later books include *The Virtual Community* (1993), *Smart Mobs* (2002) and *Net Smart* (2012). Encyclopedia.com's entry describes *Talking Tech* and praises the "concision and energy" of his writing as critics saw it ([Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/rheingold-howard-e-1947)). **Howard Levine.** Library catalogs give only "Levine, Howard, 1947-". He is Rheingold's co-author again on *The Cognitive Connection: Thought and Language in Man and Machine* (Prentice Hall Press, 1987). Beyond those two books I found no biography, website or interview I could tie to this Howard Levine with confidence; the name is common, so I have not guessed. ## 4. Author interviews and talks None specifically about this book that I found. Closest: - [Thinking Allowed, "Computers and the Mind" with Jeffrey Mishlove (transcript, Intuition Network)](http://www.intuitionnetwork.org/txt/rheingol.htm): Mishlove introduces Rheingold as "the coauthor of Talking Tech" before they discuss *Tools for Thought* and mind-extending computers (mid-1980s; date not shown in the snippet I saw). - [Fresh Air, October 21, 1993, "The New Networked Frontier"](https://freshairarchive.org/segments/new-networked-frontier): Terry Gross with Rheingold on virtual communities; much later than this book. - [First Monday / Mindjack interview, 1999](https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/download/704/614/3642): long print interview on his path from *Tools for Thought* to online community. - [Medium retrospective, "The Past Futures of Howard Rheingold," 2017](https://hrheingold.medium.com/the-past-futures-of-howard-rheingold-987a2117c79a): Rheingold on his early-1980s freelance years. For Levine, I found none. ## 5. Summary **Thesis.** Science and technology vocabulary has moved into ordinary conversation, and a literate person now needs to be able to "talk tech." The preface is titled "Talking Tech—A New Social Requirement," and it ends: "*Talking Tech* is meant to help you meet the challenge of speaking it head-on." Another snippet says the book "presents this guide to science's 'alphabet soup.'" and refers to numbered "rules of talking tech" (I saw only the phrase "The third rule of talking tech is:", not the rule). A back-matter blurb puts the scope as: "In 'The Specifics,' everything from acid rain to Zeno's paradox gets the full treatment: a short precise" [definition…; snippet cut off]. Encyclopedia.com summarizes the format as a lexicon of seventy terms "that have crept into common usage," each followed by "a brief, scientifically accurate explanation and a short essay, in layperson's language," so the reader can understand and use the term in conversation. **Entry format (from snippets).** Each entry has labeled parts: **DEFINITION**, **WHAT IT REALLY MEANS**, **CONVERSATIONAL TACTICS**, **RELATED TOPICS** (cross-references to other entries) and **FURTHER READING** (books and magazine articles). Many entries also carry a titled box or sidebar, for example "Neutrinos—Invisible Pollution," "Sunspots—The Making of a Weather Maker," "Topology—Doughnuts and Coffee Cups," "Uncertainty Principle—Two Views," "Meltdown—Heating Your Tea," "Particle Accelerator—A Homemade Cloud Chamber," and "Regeneration—A New Reason for Slit Skirts." **Outline (table of contents).** Reassembled from the OCR of the contents page; page numbers are start pages as printed. "—" means the page number did not survive in the snippets I saw (the first column's page numbers were split off by the OCR), not that it is missing in the book. - Preface: Talking Tech—A New Social Requirement — p. — - Introduction: Talking Tech—The Fundamentals — p. — (opens with the line "Science is a first-rate piece of furniture…", the start of a well-known Oliver Wendell Holmes aphorism; whether the book attributes it I could not see) - Talking Tech—The Specifics (70 entries): 1. Acid Rain — 2. Acupuncture — 3. Altruism/Selfish Gene — 4. Analog Computer — 5. Appropriate Technology — 6. Artificial Intelligence — 7. Behavior Modification — 8. Big Bang — 9. Bioethics — 10. Blackbody Radiation — 11. Black Holes — 12. Cholesterol — 13. Chronobiology — 14. Clones — 15. Cognitive Dissonance — 16. Consciousness (pages for 1–16 not recovered from the contents; running heads place Acupuncture near p. 37, Appropriate Technology and Artificial Intelligence near pp. 47–49, Black Holes near p. 69, Cholesterol near p. 73, Chronobiology at p. 77) 17. Coriolis Effect 92 — 18. Cosmology 95 — 19. Digital Computer 98 — 20. DNA 104 — 21. Electronic Smog 109 — 22. Endorphins 113 — 23. Energy Alternatives 117 — 24. Entropy 129 — 25. Exobiology (page garbled) — 26. Fiber Optics 138 — 27. Fission 141 — 28. Fusion 145 — 29. Galaxy 147 — 30. Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem 151 — 31. Holography 153 — 32. Hot-Blooded Dinosaurs 157 — 33. Human Origins 161 — 34. Image Enhancement 167 — 35. Information 171 — 36. Intelligence Enhancement 175 — 37. Lasers 179 — 38. Longevity—Immortality 183 — 39. Mathematical Modeling 189 — 40. Meltdown 195 — 41. Miniaturization 199 — 42. Mutation 203 — 43. Neutrinos 206 — 44. Origin of Life 210 — 45. Particle Accelerator (page garbled; ~214) — 46. Periodic Table 218 — 47. Pheromones 223 — 48. Photosynthesis 227 — 49. Placebo 230 — 50. Plate Tectonics 233 — 51. Quantum Theory 236 — 52. Quarks 241 — 53. Quasar 243 — 54. Radio Astronomy 246 — 55. Randomness 249 — 56. Recombinant DNA 252 — 57. Red Shift 258 — 58. Regeneration 260 — 59. Relativity Theory 263 — 60. Reproductive Technology 273 — 61. Sociobiology 276 — 62. Stellar Death 282 — 63. Sunspots 285 — 64. Technology Assessment 289 — 65. Topology 292 — 66. Toxic Chemicals 294 — 67. Uncertainty Principle 299 — 68. Viruses 303 — 69. Weather Modification 307 — 70. Zeno's Paradox 311 - Epilogue: A Puzzling Synthesis — 315 - Index — 319 The count of entries I reassembled (70) matches the "seventy" in the review summaries, which is a good sign that none is missing. **Key ideas (from the structure and snippets; not from a reading).** - **Conversation as the goal.** Each term gets a precise definition first and then a plain-language essay plus "conversational tactics," so the book is about using science words correctly in talk, not a textbook. One snippet in the Quasar entry advises talking about "quasar," the word, rather than the object, since the name is a contraction of a longer phrase. - **A web, not a list.** The "Related topics" lines tie entries together (for example, Big Bang ↔ Galaxy, Quasar, Radio Astronomy, Red Shift, Stellar Death; Clones ↔ DNA, Mutation, Recombinant DNA, Sociobiology), and the epilogue is titled "A Puzzling Synthesis." - **Early-1980s agenda.** The mix leans toward what was in the news around 1980: recombinant DNA, reproductive technology and bioethics, meltdown and fission/fusion, energy alternatives, toxic chemicals and acid rain, endorphins, sociobiology and the selfish gene, artificial intelligence and miniaturization. Technology assessment (including the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment, which a snippet calls "a billion-dollar agency") is a recurring cross-reference. - **Mind and computing threads** that Rheingold and Levine developed later: analog and digital computers, artificial intelligence, information, intelligence enhancement, Gödel's incompleteness theorem and consciousness, the seeds of *Tools for Thought* and *The Cognitive Connection*. - **Reception.** *Publishers Weekly*: "In addition to being entertaining, this book contains a useful mine of information." *Library Journal* (Sarojini Balachandran): it "is bound to enliven both living rooms and classrooms." (Both quoted as given by Encyclopedia.com; I did not see the original reviews.) Goodreads shows one rating and no reviews. ## 6. Fact-check Overall verdict: **mixed**. Publication facts and the table of contents are checked against catalog records and the scan's OCR. Claims inside the entries are checked only where a snippet showed them. | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |---|---|---| | Authors Howard Rheingold and Howard Levine; Morrow, New York, 1982; 324 pp.; Quill paperback 1983 | Supported | [Open Library OL4268107M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL4268107M), [OL3501265M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL3501265M); [IA metadata](https://archive.org/details/talkingtechconve0000rhei); [rheingold.com bibliography](https://www.rheingold.com/howard/HowBiblio.html) | | 70 entries, acid rain to Zeno's paradox | Supported | Encyclopedia.com and Oxfam listing say seventy; the reassembled contents list has 70 entries from Acid Rain to Zeno's Paradox | | Queue / Amazon "publication date January 1, 1982" and Goodreads "first published January 1, 1983" | Placeholder dates | Catalogs give year only (1982 Morrow, 1983 Quill); day/month values are database placeholders | | A Kindle edition exists (Open Library Amazon id B007Q9TGJY) | Disputed (wrong) | The ASIN opens an unrelated World Bank report on British Guiana | | Laser entry: "The most powerful multi-beam laser now used is named Shiva" | Supported for its time, now dated | Shiva (20 beams, LLNL) ran 1977 to its dismantling in 1981, followed by Novette and Nova ([Wikipedia, Shiva laser](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_laser)) | | Black-hole entry: Hawking's "turnabout on black hole theory" (when is a black hole not black) | Supported | Hawking radiation (1974): [Wikipedia, Hawking radiation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation) | | Quasar entry: "quasar" is an acronym for a longer phrase | Supported (strictly a contraction) | "Quasi-stellar radio source," coined 1964 by Hong-Yee Chiu ([Wikipedia, Quasar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasar)) | | Cross-reference: the bubble chamber "came from a glass of beer" | Disputed | Glaser denied the beer-inspiration story in a 2006 talk, though he did test beer in early prototypes ([Wikipedia, Bubble chamber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_chamber)) | | The OTA as "a billion-dollar agency" | Unverified / probably loose | The snippet is cut off; OTA's own annual budget was far smaller (roughly $10–20 million a year), so the phrase may refer to the research it assessed. I could not see the full sentence ([Wikipedia, Office of Technology Assessment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Technology_Assessment)) | | Science content of the other entries | Not checked | I did not read them | ## 7. Citations and references **What the book draws on.** Every entry ends with a "Further reading" list (the catalog notes "Includes bibliographies and index"). Fragments visible in snippets: *Black Holes and Warped Spacetime*, William [cut off; presumably William J. Kaufmann]; *The First Three* [cut off; presumably Weinberg's *The First Three Minutes*]; *Gödel, Escher, Bach: An* [Eternal Golden Braid, Hofstadter]; *Beyond Freedom and Dignity*, B. F. Skinner, Knopf, 1971; "Bioelectricity and Regeneration," R. B. Bogens [as OCR'd], *Bioscience*, August 1979; "Rain of Troubles"; a cholesterol book by Carlson Wade (Keats, 1973); a title by "…Gardner" (Vintage, 1976); a title by "…Davies" (Cambridge University Press, 1979); and a title by "…R. Newman" (Simon and Schuster, 1956). Bracketed parts are my identifications, not text I saw. Only these fragments were visible; I have not reconstructed the full lists. **Who cites it.** Rheingold's bibliography; *The Cognitive Connection*'s "Other books by" page; the Mishlove interview introduction; Encyclopedia.com's author entry. **Links this note used:** - Catalogs and copies: [Open Library work OL3493697W](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL3493697W); editions [OL4268107M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL4268107M), [OL3501265M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL3501265M), [OL7725567M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7725567M); [Internet Archive scan](https://archive.org/details/talkingtechconve0000rhei); [Open Library search inside](https://openlibrary.org/search/inside?q=%22conversational+guide+to+science+and+technology%22); [WorldCat 7814234](https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/7814234); [WorldCat 8952701](https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/8952701); [LCCN 81014130](https://lccn.loc.gov/81014130); [Google Books](https://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN068800783X); [Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4540008-talking-tech); [LibraryThing](https://www.librarything.com/work/1523210); [Amazon hardcover](https://www.amazon.com/dp/068800783X); [Amazon paperback](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0688016030); [Amazon B007Q9TGJY (mismatched)](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007Q9TGJY); [Oxfam listing](https://onlineshop.oxfam.org.uk/talking-tech-a-conversational-guide-to-science-and-technology/product/HD_303683500); [OverDrive search](https://www.overdrive.com/search?q=Talking%20Tech%20Rheingold); [Open Library cover](https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/14523701-L.jpg). - Authors: [rheingold.com bibliography](https://www.rheingold.com/howard/HowBiblio.html); [Wikipedia, Howard Rheingold](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Rheingold); [Encyclopedia.com, Rheingold](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/rheingold-howard-e-1947). - Interviews: [Thinking Allowed transcript](http://www.intuitionnetwork.org/txt/rheingol.htm); [Fresh Air, 1993](https://freshairarchive.org/segments/new-networked-frontier); [First Monday / Mindjack, 1999](https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/download/704/614/3642); [Medium, 2017](https://hrheingold.medium.com/the-past-futures-of-howard-rheingold-987a2117c79a). - Fact-check: [Shiva laser](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_laser); [Hawking radiation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation); [Quasar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasar); [Bubble chamber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_chamber); [Office of Technology Assessment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Technology_Assessment). - Related dossiers: [[Book Summaries/Rheingold, Howard/The Cognitive Connection - Howard Levine and Howard Rheingold|The Cognitive Connection]]; [[Book Summaries/Rheingold, Howard/The New Technology Coloring Book - Howard Rheingold|The New Technology Coloring Book]]; [[Book Summaries/Rheingold, Howard/Higher Creativity - Willis Harman and Howard Rheingold|Higher Creativity]]; [[Book Summaries/Rheingold, Howard/Tools for Thought - Howard Rheingold|Tools for Thought]]; [[Book Summaries/Rheingold, Howard/They Have a Word for It - Howard Rheingold|They Have a Word for It]].