Devices of the Soul: Battling for Our Selves in an Age of Machines

Steve Talbott

  • 出版商: O'Reilly
  • 出版日期: 2017-11-07
  • 定價: $726
  • 售價: 8.0$581
  • 語言: 英文
  • 頁數: 300
  • 裝訂: Paperback
  • ISBN: 1492025615
  • ISBN-13: 9781492025610
  • 相關分類: 設計需求 Requirement
  • 立即出貨 (庫存 < 4)

商品描述

"Self-forgetfulness is the reigning temptation of the technological era. This is why we so readily give our assent to the absurd proposition that a computer can add two plus two, despite the obvious fact that it can do nothing of the sort--not if we have in mind anything remotely resembling what we do when we add numbers. In the computer's case, the mechanics of addition involve no motivation, no consciousness of the task, no mobilization of the will, no metabolic activity, no imagination. And its performance brings neither the satisfaction of accomplishment nor the strengthening of practical skills and cognitive capacities."

In this insightful book, author Steve Talbott, software programmer and technical writer turned researcher and editor for The Nature Institute, challenges us to step back and take an objective look at the technology driving our lives. At a time when 65 percent of American consumers spend more time with their PCs than they do with their significant others, according to a recent study, Talbott illustrates that we're forgetting one important thing--our Selves, the human spirit from which technology stems.

Whether we're surrendering intimate details to yet another database, eschewing our physical communities for online social networks, or calculating our net worth, we freely give our power over to technology until, he says, "we arrive at a computer's-eye view of the entire world of industry, commerce, and society at large...an ever more closely woven web of programmed logic."

商品描述(中文翻譯)

「自我遺忘是科技時代的主要誘惑。這就是為什麼我們如此容易同意一個荒謬的命題,即電腦可以將兩加二,儘管明顯事實是它根本做不到這樣的事情──至少不是我們在加法時所做的那種事情。對於電腦來說,加法的過程不涉及動機、任務意識、意志的調動、新陳代謝活動或想像力。而它的表現既不能帶來成就感,也不能增強實踐技能和認知能力的能力。」

在這本富有洞察力的書中,作者史蒂夫·塔爾博特(Steve Talbott)──一位從軟體程式設計師和技術作家轉型為自然研究所的研究員和編輯的人──挑戰我們退後一步,客觀地看待推動我們生活的科技。根據最近的一項研究,當有65%的美國消費者花在個人電腦上的時間超過與重要他人相處的時間時,塔爾博特指出我們忘記了一個重要的事情──我們自己,科技源於人類精神。

無論是將私密細節交給另一個數據庫,放棄實體社區轉向線上社交網絡,還是計算自己的淨值,我們自由地將我們的權力交給科技,直到他說:「我們對整個工業、商業和社會的電腦視角越來越緊密地編織成一個編程邏輯的網絡。」