Today I was referred to Cory Doctorow‘s new book: The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation. Apparently it’s basically just about the idea that web services should interoperate. I’m not going to read this one, but you might?
Here’s an interesting talk about how we won’t need programmers very soon: Large Language Models and The End of Programming – CS50 Tech Talk with Dr. Matt Welsh.
If refers to the following books:
Here is a presentation of the work of Iain McGilchrist: The Divided Brain.
McGilchrist has written a number of books, including:
I have finished reading Stolen Focus by Johann Hari (affiliate link).
I went into this book much more worried about the state of attention in our communities than I was when I came out. Having read about it I kinda don’t feel that we really do have an urgent problem with so many people on earth being constantly engaged with their smart phones.
I might have trouble now starting a conversation with a family member because they are engrossed in their phone, and I might think this is new or different, but thirty years ago it would have been the same thing if they had their nose in a book or a newspaper.
I think by and large it’s good when we’re paying attention to things and engaging with them. That’s not only how entertainment gets done, that is also how work gets done.
I suspect one of the driving forces behind the surge in ADHD diagnoses (and Hari didn’t say this) is that people are getting the diagnosis deliberately because they want access to prescription amphetamines.
Anyway. I would still recommend reading this book. Hari does a good job of covering all the bases and investigating all the topics, including:
This on IRC today: The Tyranny of Structurelessness. It’s an essay about human organizations by Jo Freeman from back in the seventies.
My friend sent me a link to Postscript on the Societies of Control by Gilles Deleuze. I’m not sure if I agree. I might need to read this one again.
At the end of The Problems of Philosophy, Bertrand Russell says:
The student who wishes to acquire an elementary knowledge of
philosophy will find it both easier and more profitable to read some
of the works of the great philosophers than to attempt to derive an
all-round view from handbooks. The following are specially
recommended:
I have a working theory that you can tell how good an electrical engineer is by the type of soldering iron tip they use.
And no one uses a knife tip, I mean come on, be serious.
Here’s a fun essay from Douglas Adams: How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet. He says that attitudes toward technology go like this: