You Are Not a Gadget
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Jaron Lanier, a Silicon Valley visionary since the 1980s, was among the first to predict the revolutionary changes the World Wide Web would bring to commerce and culture. Now, in his first book, written more than two decades after the web was created, Lanier offers this provocative and cautionary look at the way it is transforming our lives for better and for worse.
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The current design and function of the web have become so familiar that it is easy to forget that they grew out of programming decisions made decades ago. The web's first designers made crucial choices (such as making one's presence anonymous) that have had enormous—and often unintended—consequences. What's more, these designs quickly became "locked in," a permanent part of the web's very structure.
Lanier discusses the technical and cultural problems that can grow out of poorly considered digital design and warns that our financial markets and sites like Wikipedia, Facebook, and Twitter are elevating the "wisdom" of mobs and computer algorithms over the intelligence and judgment of individuals.
Lanier also shows:
How 1960s antigovernment paranoia influenced the design of the online world and enabled trolling and trivialization in online discourse
How file sharing is killing the artistic middle class;
How a belief in a technological "rapture" motivates some of the most influential technologists
Why a new humanistic technology is necessary.
Controversial and fascinating, You Are Not a Gadgetis a deeply felt defense of the individual from an author uniquely qualified to comment on the way technology interacts with our culture.
Liked You Are Not a Gadget? Here’s where I’d start.
These suit anyone who liked You Are Not a Gadget. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.
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The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding From You Shares nonfiction, technology, tech -
Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age Shares nonfiction, technology, philosophy -
The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom Shares nonfiction, technology, tech -
The Googlization of Everything: Shares nonfiction, technology, tech
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Product Design for the Web: Principles of Designing and Releasing Web Products
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Programming Collective Intelligence: Building Smart Web 2.0 Applications
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The Web Designer's Idea Book, Volume 3: Inspiration from Today's Best Web Design Trends, Themes and Styles
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Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations