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Once you have the basics of a given technological leap in place, it’s always important to step back and focus on the people for a while.
Jaron Lanier, You Are Not a Gadget

The Futureproof Library

June 07, 2011

We are pleased to debut a Library section featuring selected works from the “growing body of literature addressing the intersection of technology, culture, and personal identity.”

At the moment, you can find a review of Jaron Lanier’s You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto:

In You Are Not a Gadget, Lanier artfully and even-handedly argues that today’s prevailing Internet ethos undervalues the individual, and instead places emphasis on the misguided notion of the “hive mind”–the powerful crowd dynamic that breathes life into sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Wikipedia.

Our second featured book is Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains:

In [The Shallows], Carr synthesizes the history of intellectual technology with today’s burgeoning understanding of brain plasticity, in an attempt to allay his fear that “the tumultuous advance of [the Internet] could…drown out the refined perceptions, thoughts, and emotions that arise only through contemplation and reflection”.

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