
Position Title
Professor
1 Shields Avenue, Davis CA 95616
About
(Portrait by my sister Tessa Brunton)
You can find all of my papers and articles for download here.
Research Focus
History of science and technology: computing (pre- and post-electronic), networking, early programming, early artificial intelligence, cybernetics, cryptography, surveillance; cryptocurrencies, blockchains, transaction and payment systems, alternative and experimental currencies; failed technologies, vaporware, theories of hype, dead media, abandoned infrastructure.
Utopian technological subcultures: transhumanists, cosmists, cryonics, Extropians, rationalists; communist and capitalist utopian technologies of the 1880s-1940s; history of capitalism.
Ancient technologies: knots and knotting, cordage and textiles, mnemonics, early metallurgy, foraging, load carriage.
Currently (2025) at work on a book about "bro science."
Publications
Digital Cash: The Unknown History of the Anarchists, Utopians, and Technologists Who Created Cryptocurrency. Princeton University Press, 2019
Communication. With Mercedes Bunz and Paula Bialski. University of Minnesota / Meson Press, 2019
Obfuscation: A User’s Guide for Privacy and Protest. With Helen Nissenbaum. MIT Press, 2015
Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet. MIT Press, April 2013