A Network Orange: Logic and Responsibility in the Computer Age - Hardcover

Crandall, Richard; Levich, Marvin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0387946470 ISBN 13: 9780387946474

Publisher: Springer, 1998

Synopsis

Computer technology has become a mirror of what we are and a screen on which we project both our hopes and our fears for the way the world is changing. Earlier in this century, particularly in the post-World War II era of unprecedented growth and prosperity, the social contract between citi­ zens and scientists/engineers was epitomized by the line Ronald Reagan promoted as spokesman for General Electric: "Progress is our most impor­ tant product. " In more recent decades, post-Chernobyl, post-Challenger, post-Bhopal, post-Microsoft, the social contract has undergone a transfor­ mation. More people are uncertain, fearful, and downright opposed to the notion that more technology guarantees a better life. What is a "better life"? Who benefits and who loses when new technologies change the way we live, work, learn, and play? Who has a say in the way technologies are designed and deployed? Where are we going, are we sure we want to go there, and who has the power to do anything about itt From the early days of the railroads, into the era of electrification, through the McLuhan age, much of the discourse about technology has been hype, utopianism, and what some historians have called "the rhetoric of the technological sublime. " We have discovered, however, that not all people benefit economically or politically from technological change.

About this title

Synopsis

The primary thesis of this book lies in the authors' belief that the emergence of computers as an elemental force in our modern society must be viewed with sceptical - and sometimes negative - eye. Crandall and Levich, one a mathematician and scientist, the other a philosopher and proponent of the liberal arts, strive, however, to present a balanced viewpoint of both sides of this phenomenon, investigating and reflecting on the good and bad sides of this revolution, and seek meaning in this "Information Age." Their examination is performed in a manner divested of journalistic hyperbole, the incantations of self-serving oracular futurists, and the sales pitches of the software and hardware industries. This book explores those topics which constitute the underpinnings of the "Information Age", and asks two questions: is the software, and hardware, of which our computers are made, capable of doing everything their enthusiasts would have us believe they can do? and will advances in these technologies be beneficial to the society in which they have become such an integral part?

In separating the wheat from the chaff, the authors' goal is to provide readers with a much better understanding of the limitations of these new technologies, along with propositions for better use and implementation of them within the societal context.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0387946470
• ISBN 13: 9780387946474
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 146