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'Boldly reactionary... What looks like feast, Carr argues, may be
closer to famine' Sunday Times 'Chilling' The Economist In this
ground-breaking and compelling book, Nicholas Carr argues that not
since Gutenberg invented printing has humanity been exposed to such
a mind-altering technology. The Shallows draws on the latest
research to show that the Net is literally re-wiring our brains
inducing only superficial understanding. As a consequence there are
profound changes in the way we live and communicate, remember and
socialise - even in our very conception of ourselves. By moving
from the depths of thought to the shallows of distraction, the web,
it seems, is actually fostering ignorance. The Shallows is not a
manifesto for luddites, nor does it seek to turn back the clock.
Rather it is a revelatory reminder of how far the Internet has
become enmeshed in our daily existence and is affecting the way we
think. This landmark book compels us all to look anew at our
dependence on this all-pervasive technology. This 10th-anniversary
edition includes a new afterword that brings the story up to date,
with a deep examination of the cognitive and behavioural effects of
smartphones and social media.
In The Glass Cage, best-selling author Nicholas Carr digs behind
the headlines about factory robots and self-driving cars, wearable
computers and digitized medicine, as he explores the hidden costs
of granting software dominion over our work and our leisure. Even
as they bring ease to our lives, these programs are stealing
something essential from us. Drawing on psychological and
neurological studies that underscore how tightly people's happiness
and satisfaction are tied to performing hard work in the real
world, Carr reveals something we already suspect: shifting our
attention to computer screens can leave us disengaged and
discontented. From nineteenth-century textile mills to the cockpits
of modern jets, from the frozen hunting grounds of Inuit tribes to
the sterile landscapes of GPS maps, The Glass Cage explores the
impact of automation from a deeply human perspective, examining the
personal as well as the economic consequences of our growing
dependence on computers. With a characteristic blend of history and
philosophy, poetry and science, Carr takes us on a journey from the
work and early theory of Adam Smith and Alfred North Whitehead to
the latest research into human attention, memory, and happiness,
culminating in a moving meditation on how we can use technology to
expand the human experience.
With a razor wit, Nicholas Carr cuts through Silicon Valley's
unsettlingly cheery vision of the technological future to ask a
hard question: Have we been seduced by a lie? Gathering a decade's
worth of posts from his blog, Rough Type, as well as his seminal
essays, Utopia Is Creepy offers an alternative history of the
digital age, chronicling its roller-coaster crazes and crashes, its
blind triumphs, and its unintended consequences. Carr's favorite
targets are those zealots who believe so fervently in computers and
data that they abandon common sense. Cheap digital tools do not
make us all the next Fellini or Dylan. Social networks, diverting
as they may be, are not vehicles for self-enlightenment. And
"likes" and retweets are not going to elevate political discourse.
When we expect technologies-designed for profit-to deliver a
paradise of prosperity and convenience, we have forgotten
ourselves. In response, Carr offers searching assessments of the
future of work, the fate of reading, and the rise of artificial
intelligence, challenging us to see our world anew. In famous
essays including "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" and "Life, Liberty,
and the Pursuit of Privacy," Carr dissects the logic behind Silicon
Valley's "liberation mythology," showing how technology has both
enriched and imprisoned us-often at the same time. Drawing on
artists ranging from Walt Whitman to the Clash, while weaving in
the latest findings from science and sociology, Utopia Is Creepy
compels us to question the technological momentum that has trapped
us in its flow. "Resistance is never futile," argues Carr, and this
book delivers the proof.
Nicholas Carr has made his name as an incisive writer on our
complicated relationship with technology. Utopia Is Creepy, a sharp
and often funny indictment of our tech-besotted culture, collects
essays drawn from Carr's popular blog Rough Type as well as seminal
pieces that first appeared in The Atlantic, the MIT Technology
Review and The Wall Street Journal, to provide an alternative
history of our digital age over the last ten years. Carr lays bare
the pitfalls alongside the benefits of the internet age, and
dissects the philistinism and misanthropy that underlie Silicon
Valley's "liberation mythology". With assessments of some of the
crucial issues of the day, from online surveillance to the state of
public discourse, Carr puts his finger on today's most pressing
issues.
Hailed as "the most influential book so far on the cloud computing
movement" (Christian Science Monitor), The Big Switch makes a
simple and profound statement: Computing is turning into a utility,
and the effects of this transition will ultimately change society
as completely as the advent of cheap electricity did. In a new
chapter for this edition that brings the story up-to-date, Nicholas
Carr revisits the dramatic new world being conjured from the
circuits of the "World Wide Computer."
Nicholas Carr's bestseller The Shallows has become a foundational
book in one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy
the internet's bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and
think deeply? This 10th-anniversary edition includes a new
afterword that brings the story up to date, with a deep examination
of the cognitive and behavioral effects of smartphones and social
media.
In The Glass Cage, Pulitzer Prize nominee and bestselling author
Nicholas Carr shows how the most important decisions of our lives
are now being made by machines and the radical effect this is
having on our ability to learn and solve problems. In May 2009 an
Airbus A330 passenger jet equipped with the latest 'glass cockpit'
controls plummeted 30,000 feet into the Atlantic. The reason for
the crash: the autopilot had routinely switched itself off. In
fact, automation is everywhere - from the thermostat in our homes
and the GPS in our phones to the algorithms of High Frequency
Trading and self-driving cars. We now use it to diagnose patients,
educate children, evaluate criminal evidence and fight wars. But
psychological studies show that we perform best when fully involved
in a task, while the principle of automation - that humans are
inefficient - is self-fulfilling. The glass cockpit is becoming a
glass cage. In this utterly engrossing expose, bestselling writer
Nicholas Carr reveals how automation is affecting our ability to
solve problems, forge memories and acquire skills. Rather than
rejecting technology, Carr argues that we must urgently rethink its
role in our lives, using it to enhance rather than diminish the
extraordinary abilities that make us human.
In this ground-breaking and compelling book, Nicholas Carr argues
that not since Gutenberg invented printing has humanity been
exposed to such a mind-altering technology. The Shallows draws on
the latest research to show that the Net is literally re-wiring our
brains inducing only superficial understanding. As a consequence
there are profound changes in the way we live and communicate,
remember and socialise - even in our very conception of ourselves.
By moving from the depths of thought to the shallows of
distraction, the web, it seems, is actually fostering ignorance.
The Shallows is not a manifesto for luddites, nor does it seek to
turn back the clock. Rather it is a revelatory reminder of how far
the Internet has become enmeshed in our daily existence and is
affecting the way we think. This landmark book compels us all to
look anew at our dependence on this all-pervasive technology.
A hundred years ago, companies stopped producing their own power
with steam engines and generators and plugged into the newly built
electric grid. The cheap power pumped out by electric utilities not
only changed how businesses operated but also brought the modern
world into existence. Today a similar revolution is under way.
Companies are dismantling their private computer systems and
tapping into rich services delivered over the Internet. This time
it s computing that s turning into a utility. The shift is already
remaking the computer industry, bringing new competitors like
Google to the fore and threatening traditional stalwarts like
Microsoft and Dell. But the effects will reach much further. Cheap
computing will ultimately change society as profoundly as cheap
electricity did. In this lucid and compelling book, Nicholas Carr
weaves together history, economics, and technology to explain why
computing is changing and what it means for all of us."
"Is Google making us stupid?" When Nicholas Carr posed that
question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped
into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He
also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As
we enjoy the Net's bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read
and think deeply? Now, Carr expands his argument into the most
compelling exploration of the Internet's intellectual and cultural
consequences yet published. As he describes how human thought has
been shaped through the centuries by "tools of the mind"-from the
alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the
computer-Carr interweaves a fascinating account of recent
discoveries in neuroscience by such pioneers as Michael Merzenich
and Eric Kandel. Our brains, the historical and scientific evidence
reveals, change in response to our experiences. The technologies we
use to find, store, and share information can literally reroute our
neural pathways. Building on the insights of thinkers from Plato to
McLuhan, Carr makes a convincing case that every information
technology carries an intellectual ethic-a set of assumptions about
the nature of knowledge and intelligence. He explains how the
printed book served to focus our attention, promoting deep and
creative thought. In stark contrast, the Internet encourages the
rapid, distracted sampling of small bits of information from many
sources. Its ethic is that of the industrialist, an ethic of speed
and efficiency, of optimized production and consumption-and now the
Net is remaking us in its own image. We are becoming ever more
adept at scanning and skimming, but what we are losing is our
capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection. Part
intellectual history, part popular science, and part cultural
criticism, The Shallows sparkles with memorable vignettes-Friedrich
Nietzsche wrestling with a typewriter, Sigmund Freud dissecting the
brains of sea creatures, Nathaniel Hawthorne contemplating the
thunderous approach of a steam locomotive-even as it plumbs
profound questions about the state of our modern psyche. This is a
book that will forever alter the way we think about media and our
minds.
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