Steven Johnson

Steven Berlin Johnson grew up in Washington, D.C., and studied semiotics at Brown University. Later, he received his master’s degree in English literature from Columbia University in the City of New York. Johnson remained in New York after completing his degree, and began working as a freelance journalist for various papers and magazines, including the New York Times. He published his first book, Interface Cultures: How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate, in 1997. Since then, he’s published nine other books on a variety of popular science topics, including digital technology, urban planning, and the discovery of oxygen. Perhaps his most successful book was 2005’s Everything Bad is Good for You, in which he provocatively argued that computer games, reality television, and other forms of “low” culture were actually making society more intelligent. Johnson still lives in New York City, along with his wife and three children.