|
 The
library journal Choice selected this book as one
of its six "Outstanding Academic Books" for 1996
in the field of Information and Computer Science. Here are
some comments on the book:
"Talbott's important, seminal
work should be read by everyone working with computers....His
penetrating discussions of works by H. Rheingold, G. Gilder,
and S. Papert are models of dispassionate analysis. This
short review cannot do justice to the scope and depth of
this first critical study of computers since J. Weizenbaum's
Computer Power and Human Reason."
J. Mayer, Choice, May, 1996
"There are many words—complex,
eccentric, thoughtful, stimulating, perplexing, penetrating—suitable
to describe this challenging book, suitable but inadequate.
It is a deep exegesis (at times very deep) of the problem
of man's relationship to computer-based technology and its
manifestations—the Internet, digital images, virtual reality
and as a medium of entertainment and communication. The
author sums up his brief early on: "We and our mechanical
offspring are bound together in an increasingly tight weave.
To substantially modify the larger pattern—rather than
simply be carried along by it—requires profound analysis
of things not immediately evident, and a difficult effort
to change things not easily changed."
Stephen Horvath, Logos—The Journal
of the World Book Community, vol. 11, issue 2, 2000
"Talbott tears apart all
the standard conceptions and misconceptions and gets down
to basics—the meaning of things; the differences between
data, information, and wisdom; how people communicate and
interact—and builds his discussion logically and artfully.
While I disagree with some of
his conclusions, Talbott challenged many of my assumptions
and long-held feelings about the roles of the Internet and
computers in my life. He does this better than anyone has
in a long time."
Miles O'Neal, Unix Review's "Best
Books of 1995," January, 1996
To
view this book online, click here.
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