Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age - Softcover

Clay Shirky

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846142180 ISBN 13: 9781846142185

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2010

Synopsis

For decades, technology encouraged us to squander our time and as passive consumers. Today, tech has finally caught up with human potential. In Cognitive Surplus, Clay Shirky examines the changes we will all enjoy as our untapped resources of talent and good will are put to use at last.

Since the postwar boom, we've had a surfeit of intellect, energy, and time - a "cognitive surplus." Shirky argues persuasively that this cognitive surplus - rather than being some strange new departure from normal behavior - actually returns our society to forms of collaboration that were natural to us up to and through the early 20th Century. He also charts the vast effects that our cognitive surplus - aided by new technologies - will have on 21st Century society, and how we can best exploit those effects, and how the choices we make are not only economically motivated but driven by the desire for autonomy, competence, and community.

About this title

Review

Lucid and assured ... the most amazing fact about Shirky's incisive manual for building a better world is this: it's just possible that everything he promises may be true (Guardian)

Shirky is the best chronicler we have of the unfolding cultural revolution brought on by the web (New Statesman)

About the Author

Clay Shirky teaches at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University, where he researches the interrelated effects of our social and technological networks. He has consulted with a variety of groups working on network design, including Nokia, the BBC, Newscorp, Microsoft, BP, Global Business Network, the Library of Congress, the U.S. Navy, the Libyan government, and Lego(r). His writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Times (of London), Harvard Business Review, Business 2.0, and Wired.

Edition details

• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1846142180
• ISBN 13: 9781846142185
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256