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Not So Fast: Thinking Twice About Technology
Technology is an ocean we're immersed in. Until something goes wrong, we mostly take it for granted. Meanwhile we're being shaped by it.
"Not So Fast" will change the way you think about technology. Not just digital technologies, but all technologies. The depth and breadth of the book's perspective offers dozens of illuminating insights into the nature of the technological world we've created. It also raises penetrating questions about how human beings fit, or don't fit, into that world.
Doug Hill is a best-selling journalist who has studied the history and philosophy of technology for twenty years. "Not So Fast" is filled with the voices of scholars and artists who have thought deeply about the meanings of machines. Readers of this meticulously researched, elegantly written book will come away with a heightened awareness of the underlying forces that drive our technologies—and of the ways our technologies are driving us.
"Not So Fast" will change the way you think about technology. Not just digital technologies, but all technologies. The depth and breadth of the book's perspective offers dozens of illuminating insights into the nature of the technological world we've created. It also raises penetrating questions about how human beings fit, or don't fit, into that world.
Doug Hill is a best-selling journalist who has studied the history and philosophy of technology for twenty years. "Not So Fast" is filled with the voices of scholars and artists who have thought deeply about the meanings of machines. Readers of this meticulously researched, elegantly written book will come away with a heightened awareness of the underlying forces that drive our technologies—and of the ways our technologies are driving us.
- GenresTechnology
277 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 17, 2013
1 person is currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
Doug Hill
24 books4 followersDoug Hill's previous works include "Prayer, Faith and Healing" and "Healing Power," A former staff writer for "TV Guide," he is completing studies for a divinity degree at Moravian Seminary in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He lives in Montclair, New Jersey.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 12, 2016
Life has certainly changed. Instant mass communication, swift spread of news. NOT SO FAST: Thinking Twice About Technology by Doug Hill looks at what this life is doing to us. Elon Musk, Ray Kurzweil and other technological proponents or forecasters are quoted. Doug Hill, self-described as a sceptic, praises a man who is bringing inoculations to children in shanty towns.
The topic of speed is certainly exercising much interest; I'm also reading a book called 'The Great Acceleration' by Robert Colvile, which seeks to explain why the world is getting faster, faster. Of course it is all due to the rise in computing power and drop in computing costs predicted by Moore's Law, and the consequence of global computer connectivity. But it is also due to the fact that we like this life. We like knowing what is going on and commenting and seeing other people comment on our views. We like getting a medical diagnosis or a bank loan approval quickly so we can get on with our plans. We like getting places quickly and going further. We like variety, and change. We like creativity and the latest gadgets. Our brains are being changed, just as children are becoming less fit and more short-sighted. When it comes to swapping our bodies for robots to host our brains, or injecting nanobots into our bloodstream to repair organs, will we want that?
Doug Hill looks at polls by the Pew Research Centre, in which Americans largely thought technology would make the world better for them, but voiced many concerns including privacy and social aspects. Emerson bemoaned the materialism of his era, blaming technology. Looking at some other famous American achievers and investors from Edison to Ford starts us off on a trip through philosophy and literature. Joseph Pitt of Virginia Tech reminded us that we need to blame what people do with machines, not machines, for problems. Of course, I'm thinking that sentient AI will change that somewhat. Ayn Rand, theologians and various philosophers of technology are quoted. More surprisingly there are many references throughout the book to Robert Pirsig and his 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'.
Summarising four principles of technology; Technology is by its nature expansive (globalisation); rational, direct and aggressive (fracking and war machines); combines or converges with other technologies (internet of things); strives for control (power grids).
Expressed today we see downtown stores closing because of internet stores; massive data collection about customers; corporate culture overworking employees. Next chapter, the future and how much control we have. We could live without cars but we all suffer air pollution from cars. (Self driving electric cars not mentioned.) Terms like reciprocal causality, neuroplasticity and factuality are presented, or CRISPR-altered animals and plants, with explanations. The author however gives some examples without reference, citing Ted Kaczynski in a one line example of someone who tried living without tech. Who exactly was he, and what did he do, or why did he do it? Why was he arrested? Maybe all Americans know. Maybe I'd remember if I was given more information.
In a chapter about absorbtion in technology, Steven Levy is quoted about hackers, as is MIT computer science professor Joseph Weizenbaum about early computer addicts. From here we move to Mark Twain, Charles Lindberg and John Glenn however, then Gulliver and Captain Ahab. The more obvious examples could have been Assange and Anonymous hackers. I would really prefer if the author picked a topic and followed it through, rather than backing off and getting lost, as it appears. Just the same, in the next chapter about virtual reality, we don't see much of it before we're off to religious icons and nineteenth century France.
I kept waiting for the book to engage me or display depth of knowledge, and it only occasionally did so by quoting, briefly before wandering off to discuss Socrates or early humanists. I never saw a discussion on how women's lives have been immeasurably improved, although one book on this is cited at the end as reference (Ruth Schwartz Cowan: More Work For Mother, The Ironies of Household Technology From The Open Hearth to The Microwave, 1983). More space is given to instructing fictional Eliza Doolittle. Pages 175 to 221 in my ARC are densely-packed references on each chapter. I found sixteen names which I could be sure were female among these few hundred, including Mary Shelley.
What the author genuinely knows is a mystery to me as he comes across as someone who likes to read, theorise and philosophise rather than employ computers and tech. If I wanted to know about the Industrial Revolution or French philosophy or Gulliver's Travels, I would read about them. When I pick up a book whose declared subject is modern speed and communication, to find that fifty percent of it or less is on that topic, it makes me think the author is writing for mature people, probably men, who enjoy literary and historical conversation. I'm sticking with The Great Acceleration by Robert Colvile to tell me what I need to know about today and tomorrow.
I downloaded an ARC from Net Galley and this is an unbiased review.
The topic of speed is certainly exercising much interest; I'm also reading a book called 'The Great Acceleration' by Robert Colvile, which seeks to explain why the world is getting faster, faster. Of course it is all due to the rise in computing power and drop in computing costs predicted by Moore's Law, and the consequence of global computer connectivity. But it is also due to the fact that we like this life. We like knowing what is going on and commenting and seeing other people comment on our views. We like getting a medical diagnosis or a bank loan approval quickly so we can get on with our plans. We like getting places quickly and going further. We like variety, and change. We like creativity and the latest gadgets. Our brains are being changed, just as children are becoming less fit and more short-sighted. When it comes to swapping our bodies for robots to host our brains, or injecting nanobots into our bloodstream to repair organs, will we want that?
Doug Hill looks at polls by the Pew Research Centre, in which Americans largely thought technology would make the world better for them, but voiced many concerns including privacy and social aspects. Emerson bemoaned the materialism of his era, blaming technology. Looking at some other famous American achievers and investors from Edison to Ford starts us off on a trip through philosophy and literature. Joseph Pitt of Virginia Tech reminded us that we need to blame what people do with machines, not machines, for problems. Of course, I'm thinking that sentient AI will change that somewhat. Ayn Rand, theologians and various philosophers of technology are quoted. More surprisingly there are many references throughout the book to Robert Pirsig and his 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'.
Summarising four principles of technology; Technology is by its nature expansive (globalisation); rational, direct and aggressive (fracking and war machines); combines or converges with other technologies (internet of things); strives for control (power grids).
Expressed today we see downtown stores closing because of internet stores; massive data collection about customers; corporate culture overworking employees. Next chapter, the future and how much control we have. We could live without cars but we all suffer air pollution from cars. (Self driving electric cars not mentioned.) Terms like reciprocal causality, neuroplasticity and factuality are presented, or CRISPR-altered animals and plants, with explanations. The author however gives some examples without reference, citing Ted Kaczynski in a one line example of someone who tried living without tech. Who exactly was he, and what did he do, or why did he do it? Why was he arrested? Maybe all Americans know. Maybe I'd remember if I was given more information.
In a chapter about absorbtion in technology, Steven Levy is quoted about hackers, as is MIT computer science professor Joseph Weizenbaum about early computer addicts. From here we move to Mark Twain, Charles Lindberg and John Glenn however, then Gulliver and Captain Ahab. The more obvious examples could have been Assange and Anonymous hackers. I would really prefer if the author picked a topic and followed it through, rather than backing off and getting lost, as it appears. Just the same, in the next chapter about virtual reality, we don't see much of it before we're off to religious icons and nineteenth century France.
I kept waiting for the book to engage me or display depth of knowledge, and it only occasionally did so by quoting, briefly before wandering off to discuss Socrates or early humanists. I never saw a discussion on how women's lives have been immeasurably improved, although one book on this is cited at the end as reference (Ruth Schwartz Cowan: More Work For Mother, The Ironies of Household Technology From The Open Hearth to The Microwave, 1983). More space is given to instructing fictional Eliza Doolittle. Pages 175 to 221 in my ARC are densely-packed references on each chapter. I found sixteen names which I could be sure were female among these few hundred, including Mary Shelley.
What the author genuinely knows is a mystery to me as he comes across as someone who likes to read, theorise and philosophise rather than employ computers and tech. If I wanted to know about the Industrial Revolution or French philosophy or Gulliver's Travels, I would read about them. When I pick up a book whose declared subject is modern speed and communication, to find that fifty percent of it or less is on that topic, it makes me think the author is writing for mature people, probably men, who enjoy literary and historical conversation. I'm sticking with The Great Acceleration by Robert Colvile to tell me what I need to know about today and tomorrow.
I downloaded an ARC from Net Galley and this is an unbiased review.
August 22, 2017
Technology is a wide-ranging subject that impacts everybody. Doug Hill has written a well-researched and engaging book that I recommend everybody read who has an interest in how technology is impacting us now and more importantly in the future. Here are five reasons why I am making that specific recommendation:
-Hill has written a thorough story of the history and future impact of technology using multiple resources in a wide-ranging exploration of a complex subject. His scholarship is noted by recommendations on Amazon from multiple leaders in the field.
-He has an engaging writing style. He wrote the best-selling book Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live and knows how to engage the reader in a compelling story. He does this by not only bringing in the technology experts but by also bringing in Mark Twain, Charles Lindbergh, Melville’s Captain Ahab, verses from the bible, Robert McNamara and the Vietnam war and dozens of other cultural and historical references.
-He is honest and balanced when discussing aspects of technology that go against common ways of dealing with that topic. He lays out the pros and cons of various aspects of the technology story and admits the credible side of actions that are taking place with which he has serious concerns.
-He offers multiple references from which a reader can continue the study of this important topic.
-He concludes by offering “two general suggestions that would, if widely and comprehensively pursued, move us in a positive direction.”
I will conclude with an excerpt from Hill’s chapter titled Consequences. In it he outlines why the discussion of technology is a life and death conversation.
“The renowned physicist Freeman Dyson wrote in an article on synthetic biology for the New York Review of Books, ‘The day will soon arrive when Mom and Dad, Brother and Sis will be able to manufacture new species of plants and animals for fun and profit.’”
Hill replies, “As troublesome as they might be in the long run, however, most other technological advances don’t post the sorts of immediate catastrophic risks of synthetic biology. From Dutch elm disease and the zebra mussel to the gypsy moth and the Asian tiger mosquito, introductions of exotic species into unfamiliar ecosystems have created extensive environmental harm, including direct harm to human health. It’s anybody’s guess what will happen if kids and adults around the world begin creating and releasing organisms that are exotic in every ecosystem.”
-Hill has written a thorough story of the history and future impact of technology using multiple resources in a wide-ranging exploration of a complex subject. His scholarship is noted by recommendations on Amazon from multiple leaders in the field.
-He has an engaging writing style. He wrote the best-selling book Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live and knows how to engage the reader in a compelling story. He does this by not only bringing in the technology experts but by also bringing in Mark Twain, Charles Lindbergh, Melville’s Captain Ahab, verses from the bible, Robert McNamara and the Vietnam war and dozens of other cultural and historical references.
-He is honest and balanced when discussing aspects of technology that go against common ways of dealing with that topic. He lays out the pros and cons of various aspects of the technology story and admits the credible side of actions that are taking place with which he has serious concerns.
-He offers multiple references from which a reader can continue the study of this important topic.
-He concludes by offering “two general suggestions that would, if widely and comprehensively pursued, move us in a positive direction.”
I will conclude with an excerpt from Hill’s chapter titled Consequences. In it he outlines why the discussion of technology is a life and death conversation.
“The renowned physicist Freeman Dyson wrote in an article on synthetic biology for the New York Review of Books, ‘The day will soon arrive when Mom and Dad, Brother and Sis will be able to manufacture new species of plants and animals for fun and profit.’”
Hill replies, “As troublesome as they might be in the long run, however, most other technological advances don’t post the sorts of immediate catastrophic risks of synthetic biology. From Dutch elm disease and the zebra mussel to the gypsy moth and the Asian tiger mosquito, introductions of exotic species into unfamiliar ecosystems have created extensive environmental harm, including direct harm to human health. It’s anybody’s guess what will happen if kids and adults around the world begin creating and releasing organisms that are exotic in every ecosystem.”
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