You Are Not A Gadget by Jaron Lanier
Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 10:17 am
I'm gonna re-do my review:
This is a book about the trade-offs we under go when using technology, particularly computers:
the loss of privacy
the loss of peoples ability to generate money off of their intellectual creations (such as music and writing) due to piracy and the movement towards making information free
the surprising fact that when you build a computer program it can become a foundation for other programs and you can't remove the original (MIDI is his prime example, a cool tool at first but now we are stuck with simplistic notation on our phones and electronic devices), thereby limiting future potential
and the mind-set change of making computers more special and humans less so.
It's wordy, unnecessarily complex at times, but I like the unique voice of the author.
Recommended for people interested in technology, for those who wonder about the effects of social networking and also anyone pondering what the future might hold for us as we enter deeper into a blind contract with machines and computers.
This is a book about the trade-offs we under go when using technology, particularly computers:
the loss of privacy
the loss of peoples ability to generate money off of their intellectual creations (such as music and writing) due to piracy and the movement towards making information free
the surprising fact that when you build a computer program it can become a foundation for other programs and you can't remove the original (MIDI is his prime example, a cool tool at first but now we are stuck with simplistic notation on our phones and electronic devices), thereby limiting future potential
and the mind-set change of making computers more special and humans less so.
It's wordy, unnecessarily complex at times, but I like the unique voice of the author.
Recommended for people interested in technology, for those who wonder about the effects of social networking and also anyone pondering what the future might hold for us as we enter deeper into a blind contract with machines and computers.