Not So Fast (ePub)

Technology is an ocean we're immersed in. Until something goes wrong, we mostly take it for granted. Meanwhile we're being shaped by it. 'Not So Fast' will change the way you think about technology. Not just digital technologies, but all technologies. The depth and breadth of the book's perspective offers dozens of illuminating insights into the nature of the technological world we've created. The book also asks penetrating questions about how human beings fit, or don't fit, into that world. Doug Hill is a best-selling journalist who has studied the history and philosophy of technology for twenty years. 'Not So Fast' is filled with the voices of scholars and artists who have thought deeply about the meanings of machines. Readers of this meticulously researched, elegantly written book will come away with a heightened awareness of the underlying forces that drive our technologies-and of the ways our technologies are driving us. Questions asked and answered in 'Not So Fast' include: • What are the four characteristics that define the nature of technology? • Why has our love for technology always been accompanied by an undercurrent of fear? • Should we be thrilled that we're becoming cyborgs, or horrified? • What do our feelings towards animals tell us about our feelings toward machines? • Why do we find it so hard to anticipate the problems our technologies create? • How much control do we really have over the technologies? (The answer to that last question is, 'Not nearly as much as you might think.') 'Doug Hill's insights into technology are both original and profound. I've worked and traveled in the highest reaches of the tech world for more than twenty years and I still learned much from this book.' - Allen Noren, Vice President, Online, O'Reilly Media