Rachel Plotnick's book (Power Button, referenced in the article) is very good. Here's a much longer excerpt from it, on the button as it relates to carrying out life-and-death decisions (e.g., warfare and executions): https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/of-war-and-electric-death...

(Full disclosure: I work for the MIT Press, who published Power Button. But it really is one of my favorite history of tech titles we've published in the 10+ years i've been here)