Pamela McCorduck

Pamela Ann McCorduck (October 27, 1940 – October 18, 2021) was a British-born American author of books about the history and philosophical significance of artificial intelligence, the future of engineering, and the role of women and technology. She also wrote three novels. She contributed to Omni, The New York Times, Daedalus, and the Michigan Quarterly Review, and was a contributing editor of Wired. She was a former vice president of the PEN American Center. She was married to computer scientist and academic Joseph F. Traub.

Early life McCorduck was born on October 27, 1940, in Liverpool, United Kingdom, to Hilda (née Bond) and William J. "Jack" McCorduck. The city was being bombed by the German Luftwaffe at the time of her birth. Her mother was a beautician and teacher, while her father owned beauty colleges, including the one where her mother taught. She was the eldest of three siblings, with the younger two being twins. She moved to Stamford, Connecticut, in the United States, with her family, when she was 6. She also wrote two novels, The Edge of Chaos (2007) and Bounded Rationality (2012). Her last book was a memoir, This Could Be Important: My Life and Times With the Artificial Intelligentsia (2019), in which she regretted not calling attention to the potential misuse of artificial intelligence earlier. The Carnegie Mellon University library hosts the Traub-McCorduck collection set up in 2018, based on her contributions, which included early counting machines, manuscripts, books and artifacts documenting the history of computing, including two enigma machines. In 2020, she was appointed a board member of the University of California Libraries. She was survived by her sister, Mrs. Sandra Marona, and her brother, John McCorduck, as well as three nephews, four nieces and two step-daughters.

Selected works

(web edition; EPUB)

With Edward Feigenbaum

With Nancy Ramsey