Bots: The Origin of New Species

by Andrew Leonard

Bots is the story of cyberspace's first indigenous species. Strings of code, bots are a software version of a mechanical robot. Originally meant to do our bidding, when unleashed by computer hackers bots can disable computing systems and engage in personal attacks, and are capable of causing nuisance and chaos all over the Internet. Bots have great potential for either organizing our lives or sabotaging them. In telling the tale of the development of software robots, Andrew Leonard constructs a playful, fascinating, anecdote-rich history of the Internet, tracking it from the free-form ASCII-text playground of chipheads, researchers, and scientists to the sprawling, advertising-laden, cultural entity it has become. In an expert and entertaining book, Leonard makes a sophisticated subject understandable, and explores the psychology and anthropology of popular technology.

Genres: Nonfiction, Computers

224 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1997

Reviews

[Lorenz Klopfenstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written short history of precursor software for the modern Internet. Fun and interesting to read, especially in light of the original publication date: it covers much of the history of multi-user dungeons (MUDs), conversational bots (ELIZA), early Web spiders (the Altavista Web crawler, for instance), and Usenet, conflating a great variety of automated software and so-called “agents” under one concept. It provides a great historical perspective on the, at the time, nascent field of Internet-connected software and all connected problems, especially in relation to users, freedom, censorship, security, and so on. Many side notes and warnings about the nature of “bots” and their issues can be perfectly translated to the modern Web as well.

[JP · Rating 3 out of 5]

Covers the history of automated program robots, from Eliza, through the various MUD worlds (killing Barney's, earning MOOlah), to web spiders and other crawlers. The escalation of spamming and cancelbots on the Usenet illustrates the problems that have only begun. Now that they are cleverly called "agents," I'm sure the problems are solved. Much of the complexity relates to attempts to properly categorize using AI, expert systems, and complex indexes.

[Dr. Barrett Dylan Brown, Phd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice! The story of internet software Bots as they conform to Darwin's evolutionary theorums. Although written in 2000 it is still a fantastic read for a anthro-techno-geek. My only sadness comes from the fact that he didn't include modern Botnets in his analysis, which would have been facinating, but the time was a little early.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now, just a fun history of how bots worked in the 90s (IRC bots, MUD bots, etc).