Girl Decoded

A captivating memoir that chronicles one woman's mission to humanise technology and what she learns about humanity along the way. Now more than ever, we find ourselves unable to express our true feelings through technology. Whether it's a misunderstood text, an oversimplified emoji or a Skype call that leaves us feeling lonely, when most of our communication is carried out through tech, the result is a virtual world that's lacking our humanity - a society lacking in empathy. Rana el Kaliouby discovered this when she left Cairo, a newly-married, Muslim woman, to take up her place at Cambridge University to study computer science. Many thousands of miles from home, she began to develop systems to help her better connect with her family. She started to pioneer the new field of Emotional Intelligence (EI). She now runs her company, Affectiva (the industry-leader in this emerging field) that builds EI into our technology and develops systems that understand humans the way we understand one another. This is the fascinating story of her mission to humanise technology and what she learns about humanity along the way.