Social and ethical aspects Books

Book SynopsisThe Ethics of Artificial Intelligence develops the theses that AI is an unprecedented divorce between agency and intelligence and, on this basis, that AI as a new form of agency can be harnessed ethically and unethically. Luciano Floridi argues in favour of a marriage between the Green of environmentalism and the Blue of our digital technologies.Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Part One: Understanding AI 1: Past: the Emergence of AI 2: Present: AI as a New Form of Agency, Not Intelligence 3: Future: the Foreseeable Development of AI Part Two: Evaluating AI 4: A Unified Framework of Ethical Principles for AI 5: From Principles to Practices: the Risks of being Unethical 6: Soft Ethics and the Governance of AI 7: Mapping the Ethics of Algorithms 8: Bad Practices: the Misuse of AI for Social Evil 9: Good Practices: the Proper Use of AI for Social Good 10: How to Deliver a Good AI Society: Some Recommendations 11: The Gambit: AI Impact on Climate Change 12: AI and the UN Sustainable Development Goals 13: Conclusion: the Green and the Blue Bibliography

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Book SynopsisDr Tiffany Jenkins is a writer, cultural historian and broadcaster. She is the author of the acclaimed Keeping Their Marbles: How Treasures of the Past Ended Up in Museums and Why They Should Stay There. She's a former honorary fellow in the History of Art department at the University of Edinburgh and a former visiting fellow in the Department of Law at the London School of Economics. She wrote and presented the BBC Radio 4 series A History of Secrecy' and Contracts of Silence', about the rise of non-disclosure agreements, and has appeared regularly as a critic on Saturday Review and Front Row. She is a trustee of the British Museum. Her opinion pieces have appeared in The Guardian, The Observer, the Financial Times, The Scotsman and The Spectator. She divides her time between London and Sussex. Strangers and Intimates is her third book.

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Book SynopsisThe ultimate guide to digital wellbeing and living your best life offline and on!Digital wellbeing is all about finding the balance between the digital world and the real world and making sure we use smartphones and other digital devices in a healthy way, while living fulfilling lives beyond the screen.This guide helps tweens and teens do exactly that, inspiring them to set their devices aside (sometimes anyway!) and start living in the here and now.Written by digital wellbeing expert Tanya Goodin, it's packed with positive prompts, thought-provoking science, and hands-on activities to encourage healthy habits around screen use including nostalgic crafts, retro tech scavenger hunts, and phone-free nature excursions, plus practical tips on how to deal with digital challenges like comparison culture, cyberbullying, trolling, and much more.This book is not about teenagers giving up their devices forever; it's about being more mindful of how they use them, so they can live their best lives on and off the screen.Teenagers will discover how to:Develop healthy habits, identify priorities, and set achievable goalsKnow their own screen limits and deal with digital distractionsStay safe and savvy on the internetFocus on the positive and productive uses of smartphones (no more doom-scrolling!)Combat comparison culture on social media and quieten their inner criticsNurture friendships and family relationships offline and onBuild resilience and self-confidence to live healthily and happily with their digital devices

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Book SynopsisThe Most Human Human by Brian Christian is a mind-blowing piece of reportage that will appeal to readers of Jon Ronson''s The Psychopath Test, and an inspiring riposte to John Gray''s classic Straw Dogs - a book that will change your whole understanding of what being human actually means...AI is on the brink of a new dawn. And so are we. . .Telling the difference between humans and computers used to be easy. But artificial intelligence is now so advanced that it is capable of behaving, and even thinking, in ways that have long been considered exclusive to humankind. The time has come to rethink what being human actually means...In The Most Human Human Brian Christian meets the world''s leading artificial intelligences, finds out what they''re capable of - and what makes us unique. The result is a funny, shocking, inspiring, deeply humane and intelligent book that reaches into every aspect of our lives.''Tremendously entertaining'' ****Metro''Excellent ... a fascinating explanation of what it means to be human''Financial Times''Remarkable. A philosophical joyride. The day that a machine creates work of such wit and originality, we should all be very worried''The Times''An epic tour of philosophical, linguistic and scientific discovery. We stop off in places as far-flung as existential anxiety, predictive text and Gary Kasparov''s defeat by Deep Blue'' ****Time Out''Lively, thought-stirring, entertaining, invaluable ... compelling insights''John Gray, New StatesmanAt the age of twenty-six, Brian Christian has lectured at the LSE, Royal Academy, Bristol Festival of Ideas, Microsoft and Google, been interviewed on The Daily Show, BBC and in the Paris Review, profiled in the Guardian, featured in The New York Times, the New Yorker and on the front cover of Atlantic, and has made numerous appearances at universities and in online videos speaking on his subject. He holds a dual degree from Brown University in computer science and philosophy, and an MFA in poetry.Trade ReviewTremendously entertaining **** * Metro *Excellent ... a fascinating explanation of what it means to be human * Financial Times *Remarkable. A philosophical joyride. The day that a machine creates work of such wit and originality, we should all be very worried * The Times *An epic tour of philosophical, linguistic and scientific discovery. We stop off in places as far-flung as existential anxiety, predictive text and Gary Kasparov's defeat by Deep Blue. A lively, personable read and an overpowering affirmation of our species **** * Time Out *Lively, thought-stirring, entertaining, invaluable ... compelling insights -- John Gray * New Statesman *Dense with ideas, terrific. One of the rare successful literary offspring of Gödel, Escher, Bach, where art and science meet an engaged mind and the friction produces real fire * New Yorker *Fast-paced, witty, and thoroughly winning ... investigates the nature of human interactions, the meaning of language, and the essence of what sets us apart from machines ... fabulous * Publishers Weekly *An irreverent picaresque ... What Christian learns along the way is that if machines win the imitation game as often as they do, it's not because they're getting better at acting human; it's because we're getting worse ... An authentic son of Frost, he learns by going where he has to go, and in doing so proves that both he and his book deserve their title * The New York Times *Immensely ambitious and bold, intellectually provocative, while at the same time entertaining and witty - a delightful book about how to live a meaningful, thriving life -- Alan Lightman, author of Einstein's DreamsSuch an important book ... Brian Christian takes on this very weighty task, and somehow makes it fun -- Brian Shenk, author of The Genius in all of UsAn eye-opening inquest into human imagination, thought, conversation, love and deception * David Eagleman, author of Sum *Absorbing ... Christian cleverly suggests that the Turing Test not only tells us how smart computers are but also teaches us about ourselves. ... covers a great deal of ground with admirable clarity but with a lightness of touch ... has a real knack for summing up key ideas by applying them to real-life situations -- Julian Baggini * Wall Street Journal *Strange, fertile and sometimes beautiful ... takes both the deep limitations and halting progress of artificial intelligence as an occasion for thinking about the most human activity -- Matthew Crawford, author of The Case for Working with Your HandsEntertaining and informative * Economist *

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Book Synopsis*As seen on The One Show**A Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year*'A rip-roaring mystery that's engrossing from start to finish' ABIR MUKHERJEEHAS SOMEONE GOT AWAY WITH MURDER?On the verge of a four-billion-dollar deal, a tech entrepreneur from Shoreditch is found dead in a construction site, which leads to the discovery of three skeletons over a hundred years old.But as fresh bodies turn up, can Detective Kamil - along with his friend Anjoli - prevent another murder?Desperate to solve his first case for the Met, will Kamil put his reputation on the line... then cross it?*The thrilling new Kamil Rahman mystery, THE SPY, is available to pre-order now!*Praise for the Detective Kamil Rahman series:'Hugely entertaining' ANN CLEEVES'The Detective has all the ingredients for a great crime series' SUN'[Kamil is a] likeable inspector . . . We shall hear much more of him' DAILY MAIL'An elegantly constructed thriller' THE TIMES'Outstanding' SUNDAY TIMESTrade ReviewHugely entertaining * Ann Cleeves *Ajay Chowdhury’s crime novels set in the East End are vivid portraits of modern life. * Sunday Times, Best Books of the Year *An entertaining story that ranges across love, murder and an intriguing family tree * Sun *A rip-roaring mystery that's engrossing from start to finish * Abir Mukherjee *Chowdhury brings his own expertise in modern tech to the plot, combining it with hot button history, and a biting wit. The series goes from strength to strength * Vaseem Khan *

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Book Synopsis'Boldly reactionary... What looks like feast, Carr argues, may be closer to famine' Sunday Times'Chilling' The EconomistIn this ground-breaking and compelling book, Nicholas Carr argues that not since Gutenberg invented printing has humanity been exposed to such a mind-altering technology. The Shallows draws on the latest research to show that the Net is literally re-wiring our brains inducing only superficial understanding. As a consequence there are profound changes in the way we live and communicate, remember and socialise - even in our very conception of ourselves. By moving from the depths of thought to the shallows of distraction, the web, it seems, is actually fostering ignorance. The Shallows is not a manifesto for luddites, nor does it seek to turn back the clock. Rather it is a revelatory reminder of how far the Internet has become enmeshed in our daily existence and is affecting the way we think. This landmark book compels us all to look anew at our dependence on this all-pervasive technology.This 10th-anniversary edition includes a new afterword that brings the story up to date, with a deep examination of the cognitive and behavioural effects of smartphones and social media.Trade ReviewA boldly reactionary book... Its thesis is simple and persuasive. The things that we do have a physical effect on our brains... What looks like feast, Carr argues, may be closer to famine... The internet is a distraction machine. -- Sam Leith * Sunday Times *Essential reading about our internet age. * New York Times Book Review *The most readable overview of the science and history of human cognition to date... Carr draws some chilling inferences. * The Economist *An elegantly written cry of anguish... Hair-raising. -- John Harris * Guardian *Carr straddles the book-dominated and web-dominated worlds and is at home in both... Mild-mannered, never polemical, with nothing of the Luddite about him, Carr makes his points with wide-ranging erudition. -- Christopher Caldwell * Financial Times *Unhurried... even-handed... Carr constantly emphasises the fact that screen technologies are neither evil nor miraculous in their effects on the human mind... What is certain, however, is that our minds will change... A worthy illustration that books do indeed enable deep reflection. -- Susan Greenfield * Literary Review *Absorbing [and] disturbing * Wall Street Journal *I have not only given this book to numerous friends, I actually changed my life in response to it. -- Jonathan Safran FoerAn important and timely book. See if you can stay off the Web long enough to read it! -- Elizabeth KolbertThis is a book to shake up the world. -- Ann PatchettTable of Contents0: THE WATCHDOG AND THE THIEF 1: HAL AND ME 2: THE VITAL PATHS 3: TOOLS OF THE MIND 4: THE DEEPENING PAGE 5: A MEDIUM OF THE MOST GENERAL NATURE 6: THE VERY IMAGE OF A BOOK 7: THE JUGGLER'S BRAIN 8: THE CHURCH OF GOOGLE 9: SEARCH, MEMORY 10: A THING LIKE ME 11: HUMAN ELEMENTS

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Book SynopsisCyber space is easily the most complex thing humans have ever created. With billions of people and devices all connected together, vulnerability and compromise are inevitable. The complexity continues to grow, and with it comes the emergent insecurity brought by an ever-developing frontier where digital devices and connected people meet. Security challenges present themselves increasingly often and with ever-greater impacts. This is not going to change anytime soon.Although the internet has transformed communication, business, and social life for the better, the construct of ''cyber space'' is incredibly fragile and presents endless risk. Connecting every corner of our lives to those of billions across the world, the frontier is slender between the good and the bad, benefit and catastrophe, real and fake, security and insecurity. Cyber security advice can be confusing, contradictory, and sometimes utterly detached from reality. Too easily, people feel guilty for not knowing what to do, or failing to live up to expectations. People, particularly business leaders and policy makers, must daily make security-sensitive decisions, sometimes unknowingly, without being security experts.Securing the Digital Frontier doesn''t offer easy answers, but instead explains sixteen dimensions of this dynamic problem and its current partial solutions. The strong technology of encryption has become commonplace, and is a huge benefit if deployed well: but how can you tell? Programming errors give rise to security problems, but why can we not eliminate them? Privacy is tied up with security, but can the two work against each other? Cyber space is international: how can domestic laws protect us? And what happens when those laws come into conflict with technologies like encryption? Why do you need a punctuation symbol and a capital letter in your password, anyway? Through a grasp of the big picture, through technical and human perspectives, we can begin to explore ways to unwind some of the complexity and find ways to contain the risk.

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Book SynopsisA New York Times bestselling author and tech columnist's counter-intuitive guide to staying relevant - and employable - in the machine age by becoming irreplaceably human.It's not a future scenario any more. We've been taught that to compete with automation and AI, we'll have to become more like the machines themselves, building up technical skills like coding. But, there's simply no way to keep up. What if all the advice is wrong? And what do we need to do instead to become futureproof?We tend to think of automation as a blue-collar phenomenon that will affect truck drivers, factory workers, and other people with repetitive manual jobs. But it's much, much broader than that. Lawyers are being automated out of existence. Last year, JPMorgan Chase built a piece of software called COIN, which uses machine learning to review complicated contracts and documents. It used to take the firm's lawyers more than 300,000 hours every year to review all of those documents. Now, it takes a few seconds, and requires just one human to run the program. Doctors are being automated out of existence, too. Last summer, a Chinese tech company built a deep learning algorithm that diagnosed brain cancer and other diseases faster and more accurately than a team of 15 top Chinese doctors.Kevin Roose has spent the past few years studying the question of how people, communities, and organisations adapt to periods of change, from the Industrial Revolution to the present. And the insight that is sweeping through Silicon Valley as we speak -- that in an age dominated by machines, it's human skills that really matter - is one of the more profound and counter-intuitive ideas he's discovered. It's the antidote to the doom-and-gloom worries many people feel when they think about AI and automation. And it's something everyone needs to hear.In nine accessible, prescriptive chapters, Roose distills what he has learned about how we will survive the future, that the way to become futureproof is to become incredibly, irreplaceably human.Trade ReviewA concise, insightful and sophisticated guide to maintaining humane values in an age of new machines -- The New York Times Book ReviewWhile we need to rewrite the rules of the twenty-first-century economy, Kevin's book is a great look at how people can do this on a personal level to always put humanity first -- Andrew YangLightly written and engaging * The Times *Kevin Roose provides a clear, compelling strategy for surviving the next wave of technology with our jobs - and souls - intact... Futureproof is the survival guide you need. * Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit *AI will be a far bigger game changer for the world than COVID-19. And unless we start thinking and planning for it far more seriously now, we will be in even greater peril. Futureproof is a brilliant book that explains what we need to do, all of us, right now * Anthony Seldon *Roose offers an upbeat, practical guide for dealing with "a world that is increasingly arranged by and for machines" . . . Helpful advice to quell workers' anxiety * Kirkus Reviews *PRAISE FOR YOUNG MONEY - If Kevin Roose's finely crafted Young Money does not scare you straight about the life of a young financial analyst on Wall Street, it can't be done. Roose's frolic through Wall Street's playpen is a must-read. * House of Cards; Money and Power *Despite all the press about Wall Street, the stories that don't usually get told are those of the recent college graduates who clamour for the chance to work 100 hour plus weeks at the big banks. Kevin Roose's new book, which follows a handful of analysts through the trials and tribulations of their early years on the Street, is a thoughtful exploration of their motivations and their experiences - and it's a great read. * The Smartest Guys in the Room and All the Devils are Here *A cautionary true-life tale, Young Money should be required reading for every college student who is contemplating a job on Wall Street. As for the rest of us, who remember Wall Street before 2008, Kevin Roose has provided a great window into how that world has changed-and how it hasn't. * The Predator's Ball *Highly entertaining and impressive ...Roose's captivating read is sure to appeal to readers young and old who are interested in the zeitgeist of Wall Street since the crash * Publisher's Weekly *[Young Money] offers a compelling glimpse of Wall Street in the post-2008 recession era...thought provoking, excellent book * Booklist *The young people who have flocked to Wall Street are often badly used, caught up in power struggles among middle management and little appreciated ... [Young Money] captures the daily indignities to which the junior capitalists are subjected * Kirkus Reviews *

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Book SynopsisFreakonomics for our modern online lives from the world's leading cyberpsychologist and inspiration for CSI Cyber, Mary Aiken.Trade ReviewIf you have children, stop what you are doing and pick up a copy of The Cyber Effect, a fascinating book that explores how human behaviour changes online * THE TIMES *Really good... Our lives are changing and human ­behaviour is evolving because people act differently when they are interacting with technology, says the cyberpsychologist Mary Aiken. She explains why studying our online identities is fascinating - and frightening... * OBSERVER *Fact Not Fiction BOOK CHOICE * RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB *BEST SCIENCE PICK OF THE WEEK * NATURE *A Freakonomics for our online lives...With great clarity and insight, Aiken investigates the effect of technology on human behaviour * THE BOOKSELLER, Books to Watch *From online dating to Pokémon GO, our lives are merging with tech. It's the cyber-effect * LONDON EVENING STANDARD *Aiken is popularly known as the inspiration for the TV crime drama CSI: Cyber. In The Cyber Effect, she offers a fresh voice and a uniquely compelling perspective that draws from the murky, fascinating depths of her criminal case file - an expert on human behavior in the cyber-realm * WASHINGTON POST *Aiken really hits her stride in three central chapters covering the impact of digital technology on children and young people. Here she makes a powerful case for the view that our society has been criminally negligent in the way it puts children in the harm's way of digital technology * GUARDIAN *It is of some comfort to me to know that I am not alone in my Cassandra-like warnings about the outlaw Internet. "We cannot stand by passively and watch the cyber experiment play out," Aiken warns. "In human terms, to wait is to allow for the worst outcomes." I could not have said it better. * HUFFINGTON POST *Having worked with law enforcement groups from Interpol and Europol as well as the U.S. government, Aiken knows firsthand how today's digital tools can be exploited by criminals lurking in the Internet's Dark Net * NEWSWEEK *Obesity, aggression, developmental delays: what tablets and mobiles are doing to our children...Dr Aiken says children are being 'catapulted' into cyberspace before they are psychologically capable of making sense of it * TELEGRAPH *Aiken does a good job of pulling together the main charges against the internet . . . this book is fascinating . . . the result is a book that is extremely useful and well researched -- 28.06.2016 * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *

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Book Synopsis*As seen on The One Show* *A Times and Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year*A BRUTAL KILLING UNCOVERS A COLD CASE. HAS SOMEONE GOT AWAY WITH MURDER?'A rip-roaring mystery that's engrossing from start to finish' ABIR MUKHERJEEOn the verge of a four-billion-dollar deal, a tech entrepreneur is found dead on a construction site, which leads to the discovery of three skeletons over a hundred years old.Desperate to solve his first case for the Met, Detective Kamil Rahman is under pressure to prove to his colleagues that he's up to the job.But as fresh bodies turn up, can Kamil - along with his friend Anjoli - prevent another murder? *The thrilling new Kamil Rahman mystery, THE SPY, is available to pre-order now!******Praise for the Detective Kamil Rahman series:'Hugely entertaining' ANN CLEEVES'The Detective has all the ingredients for a great crime series' SUN'[Kamil is a] likeable inspector . . . We shall hear much more of him' DAILY MAIL'An elegantly constructed thriller' THE TIMES'Outstanding' SUNDAY TIMESTimes and Sunday Times Crime Books of the Year, 2023The One Show guest, November 2023__________________________About the detectives:Kamil has always wanted to be top cop. With a father who reached the position of Police Commissioner of the Calcutta police, what else could he do, other than hanker after an honourable career chasing the bad guys, just like his dad. However, the odds are stacked against him. He's a Muslim in the Met, facing overt and covert racism and he needs to be twice as good as his colleagues to make it. All of this he could cope with, if only his personal life was humming along smoothly.Anjoli is searching, but she doesn't know what for. A high-minded psychologist who is super smart, always restless and naturally empathetic, she is meticulous and often finds connections Kamil has missed. She would love to get deeper into crime solving - possibly even have a go at it full-time but she can't shake the feeling that she is an imposter in a game of let's pretend. Kamil makes her laugh, but she doesn't know why she can't make the leap. Why is she so scared of surrendering her heart to him? Does she not feel deserving of love and adoration? Or does she fear a life where she's always waiting for the other shoe to drop?Trade ReviewAjay Chowdhury’s crime novels set in the East End are vivid portraits of modern life. * Sunday Times, Best Books of the Year *An entertaining story that ranges across love, murder and an intriguing family tree * Sun *A rip-roaring mystery that's engrossing from start to finish * Abir Mukherjee *Chowdhury brings his own expertise in modern tech to the plot, combining it with hot button history, and a biting wit. The series goes from strength to strength * Vaseem Khan *[Kamil is a] likeable inspector . . . We shall hear much more of him * Daily Mail *

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Book Synopsis*SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2024**LONGLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2023* 'A parable for our times' FINANCIAL TIMES, Best Books of 2023'Gripping' THE TIMES, Best Technology Books of 2023 ______________________________________________________________________What if you could be identified by anyone with just a blurry photo? When Kashmir Hill stumbled upon Clearview AI in 2019, a facial recognition platform with an alleged 98.6% accuracy rate, the implications were terrifying.   But that was just the beginning.   Clearview AI would quickly rise to the top, sharing its app with billionaires, law enforcement and even Hollywood actors. In this gripping true story, Hill dives deep into its shadowy journey, and explores how facial recognition technology is already a part ofTrade Review'The dystopian future portrayed in some science-fiction movies is already upon us. Whether you like it or not, your face has already been scraped from the internet, stored in a giant database, and made available to law enforcement agencies, private corporations, and authoritarian governments to track and surveil you. Kashmir Hill’s fascinating book brings home the scary implications of this new reality' -- John Carreyrou, author of 'Bad Blood''I loved this. A dark and gripping story, meticulously researched and stylishly told' -- Jenny Kleeman, author of 'Sex Robots & Vegan Meat'‘A gripping account . . . [Hill] writes with great clarity about the dangers of facial recognition technology’ * New Statesman *'A haunting portrait of sci-fi darkness in the real world' * Kirkus *'A breezy, compelling dive into the alarming use of face matching and the enormous consequences for privacy and civil liberties . . . an engrossing cautionary tale' * Literary Review *‘Startling, if not terrifying . . . the author does a great job of explaining the ins and outs of facial recognition in the book . . . Be very, very careful, Hill says again and again. If we’re not, we might all face the reality of Beijing today' * Cybernews *'So gripping' -- Taylor Lorenz, author of 'Extremely Online', on Twitter‘I’m loving this book - you’ll laugh, you’ll recoil, you’ll learn about the sordid history of eugenics and where facial recognition tech fits into said history’ -- Brian Merchant, author of 'Blood in the Machine', on Twitter‘Sharply reported . . . The saga is colorful, and the characters come off as flamboyant villains; it’s a fun read. But the book’s most incisive contribution may be the ethical question it raises’ * Atlantic *‘A most timely contribution to a much needed debate about the implications for personal privacy’ * TLS *‘Gripping . . . illuminating. The scope and sophistication of the technology is striking. A walk down the street will not feel quite the same again’ * The Economist *‘Combining vivid reportage with a chilling overview of facial recognition technology’s capabilities, this unnerves’ * Publishers Weekly *‘In a gripping — and sometimes creepy — book Hill explores the repercussions of this new technology and finds out who is behind it' * The Times, '5 Best Technology Books of 2023' *'Kashmir Hill all but invented the tech dystopia beat, and no one is a more exuberant and enjoyable guide to the dark corners of our possible future than she is. Reaching deep into the past to paint a terrifying portrait of our future, Hill’s thorough, awe-inspiring reporting and compelling storytelling paint a fascinating tale of tech’s next chapter. This is the most fun you can have reading a real-life nightmare' -- Garrett Graff, author of 'The Only Plane in the Sky'‘In its focus on the ambiguous duality of technology, a parable for our times’ * Financial Times, 'Best Books of 2023 – Technology' *

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Book SynopsisFrom revolution on Twitter to romance on Tinder, we live in a world constructed of code – and coders are the ones who built it for us.In Coders, acclaimed tech writer Clive Thompson offers an illuminating reckoning with the most powerful tribe in the world today, computer programmers, asking who they are, how they think, and what should give us pause. Along the way, Thompson ponders the morality and politics of code, including its implications for civic life and the economy, and unpacks the surprising history of the field, beginning with the first coders – brilliant and pioneering women, who were later written out of history. To understand the world today, we need to understand code and its consequences. With Coders, Thompson offers a crucial insight into the heart of the machine. ‘By breaking down what the actual world of coding looks like . . . [Thompson] removes the mystery and brings it into the legible world for the rest of us to debate.’ New York Times‘Masterful . . . [Thompson] illuminates both the fascinating coders and the bewildering technological forces that are transforming the world in which we live.’ David Grann, author of The Lost City of ZTrade ReviewFascinating. Thompson is an excellent writer and his subjects are themselves gripping . . . Many books have covered this territory, but Coders is bang up to date in a fast-moving world. * Nature *[Thompson] is a brilliant social anthropologist. And, in this masterful book, he illuminates both the fascinating coders and the bewildering technological forces that are transforming the world in which we live. -- David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z[Thompson] outlines [coders’] different personality traits, their history and cultural touchstones . . . By breaking down what the actual world of coding looks like . . . he removes the mystery and brings it into the legible world for the rest of us to debate. * New York Times *With his trademark clarity and insight, Thompson gives us an unparalleled vista into the mind-set and culture of programmers, the often-invisible architects and legislators of the digital age. -- Steven Johnson, author of How We Got to NowCoders is an engrossing, deeply clued-in ethnography, and it’s also a book about power, a new kind: where it comes from, how it feels to wield it, who gets to try – and how all that is changing. -- Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour BookstoreBefore I read this brilliantly accessible book . . . coding was something of a foggy concept to me . . . There are strings of engaging insights into the anthropology of computer programmers. * Bookseller *An avalanche of profiles, stories, quips, and anecdotes in this beautifully reported book returns us constantly to people, their stories, their hopes and thrills and disappointments . . . Fun to read, this book knows its stuff and makes it fun to learn. * Philadelphia Inquirer *Table of ContentsChapter - 1: The Software Update That Changed Reality Chapter - 2: The Four Waves of Coders Chapter - 3: Constant Frustration and Bursts of Joy Chapter - 4: Among the INTJs Chapter - 5: The Cult of Efficiency Chapter - 6: 10X, Rock Stars and the Myth of Meritocracy Chapter - 7: The ENAIC Girls Vanish Chapter - 8: Hackers, Crackers, and Freedom Fighters Chapter - 9: Cucumbers, Skynet, and Rise of the AI Chapter - 10: Scale, Trolls, and Big Tech Chapter - 11: Blue-collar Coding Acknowledgements - i: Acknowledgements Section - ii: Notes Index - iii: Index

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Book SynopsisTechGnosis is a cult classic of media studies that straddles the line between academic discourse and popular culture; it appeals to both those secular and spiritual, to fans of cyberpunk and hacker literature and culture as much as new-thought adherents and spiritual seekers How does our fascination with technology intersect with the religious imagination? In TechGnosis—a cult classic now updated and reissued with a new afterword—Erik Davis argues that while the realms of the digital and the spiritual may seem worlds apart, esoteric and religious impulses have in fact always permeated (and sometimes inspired) technological communication. Davis uncovers startling connections between such seemingly disparate topics as electricity and alchemy; online roleplaying games and religious and occult practices; virtual reality and gnostic mythology; programming languages and Kabbalah. The final chapters address the apocalyptic dreams that haunt technology, providing vital historical context as well as new ways to think about a future defined by the mutant intermingling of mind and machine, nightmare and fantasy.

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Book SynopsisWhat identity means in an algorithmic age: how it works, how our lives are controlled by it, and how we can resist itAlgorithms are everywhere, organizing the near limitless data that exists in our world. Derived from our every search, like, click, and purchase, algorithms determine the news we get, the ads we see, the information accessible to us and even who our friends are. These complex configurations not only form knowledge and social relationships in the digital and physical world, but also determine who we are and who we can be, both on and offline. Algorithms create and recreate us, using our data to assign and reassign our gender, race, sexuality, and citizenship status. They can recognize us as celebrities or mark us as terrorists. In this era of ubiquitous surveillance, contemporary data collection entails more than gathering information about us. Entities like Google, Facebook, and the NSA also decide what that information means, constructing our worlds and the identities wTrade ReviewWe Are Datais a gem!... This finely crafted book should help us to take a giant collective leap forward. * International Journal of Communication *We Are Dataspells out the implications of being made of data in the digital age: our new & algorithmic identity. John Cheney-Lippold shows how algorithmic logics that undergird the architecture, regulation, monetization, and uses of the Internet have changed the nature of human experience and identity. Through witty and accessible examples, he eloquently lays out the social and political consequences of transcoding lived identity into measurable types in our new world. Clearly written, carefully researched, timely and intelligent,We Are Datais a compelling and much-needed book. -- Alexandra Juhasz,Chair, Film Department, Brooklyn CollegeJohn Cheney-Lippolds deft examination of & measurable typesthe categories by which we are known and assessed, based on our datasheds light on contemporary societys encounter with information systems to scrutiny, and with those eager to identify us for their own ends.We Are Data goes beyond naming possible harms. It helps us think differently about what it means to be & seen by marketers, algorithms, or the NSA as members of shifting categoriesidentifications that structure us and our encounter with the world, but that we have little power to shape. -- Tarleton Gillespie,author of Wired Shut: Copyright and the Shape of Digital CultureThis book sparkles with brilliant insights. It offers us tools and a vocabulary through which we can think about the layers of identities that our data-conjured ghosts inhabit. I dont think I fully grasped the complexity of what these clouds of commercial data did with us and to us until I read We Are Data. -- Siva Vaidhyanathan,author of The Googlization of Everything—and Why We Should WorryWe Are Data is an inspiring and thought-provoking book to read, especially for those interested in the social, political, and cultural aspects of data. It draws on a wide range of well-known literature in the field of Internet and algorithm studies and further engages deeply with the philosophical aspects of the presented themes. * Mobile Media and Communication *If knowledge is indeed the means by which we can begin to challenge the digital status quo, then Cheney-Lippold has done much to forearm us by so capably elucidating the problem. * LSE Review of Books *The text moves beyond overdone topics of online privacy to look at how the lack of privacy of our data impacts identities It is the most appropriate for social science researchers and students. * Choice *We Are Data shows us just how powerful data can be and how that data affects who we are and who we can be. Cheney-Lippold addresses how data is (and always has been) a part of our lives through the discussionof categorization, control, subjectivity, and privacy. * Technical Communication *A heady and rewarding explanation of our lives in the data age. [Cheney-Lippold's] discussion of privacy...will fascinate many. Essential reading for anyone who cares about the internet's extraordinary impact on each of us and on our society. * Starred Kirkus Reviews *

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Book SynopsisArtificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere, yet it causes damage to society in ways that can’t be fixed. Instead of helping to address our current crises, AI causes divisions that limit people’s life chances, and even suggests fascistic solutions to social problems. This book provides an analysis of AI’s deep learning technology and its political effects and traces the ways that it resonates with contemporary political and social currents, from global austerity to the rise of the far right. Dan McQuillan calls for us to resist AI as we know it and restructure it by prioritising the common good over algorithmic optimisation. He sets out an anti-fascist approach to AI that replaces exclusions with caring, proposes people’s councils as a way to restructure AI through mutual aid and outlines new mechanisms that would adapt to changing times by supporting collective freedom. Academically rigorous, yet accessible to a socially engaged readership, this unique book will be of interest to all who wish to challenge the social logic of AI by reasserting the importance of the common good.Trade Review"Resisting AI is an important and necessary book... McQuillan has provided us with a powerful contribution." Computational ImpactsTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Operations of AI 2. Collateral Damage 3. AI Violence 4. Necropolitics 5. Post-machinic Learning 6. People’s Councils 7. Anti-fascist AI

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Book SynopsisGitOps and Kubernetes introduces a radical idea—managing your infrastructure with the same Git pull requests you use to manage your codebase. In this in-depth tutorial, you’ll learn to operate infrastructures based on powerful-but-complex technologies with the same Git version control tools most developers use daily. GitOps and Kubernetes is half reference, half practical tutorial for operating Kubernetes the GitOps way. Through fast-paced chapters, you’ll unlock the benefits of GitOps for flexible configuration management, monitoring, robustness, multi-environment support, and discover tricks and tips for managing secrets in the unique GitOps fashion. Key Features · Multiple-environments management with branching, namespace, and configuration · Access Control with Git, Kubernetes, and Pipeline · Using Kubernetes with Argo CD, JenkinsX, and Flux · Multi-step deployment strategies like Blue-Green, Canary in a declarative GitOps model For developers familiar with Continuous Delivery principles and the basics of Git and Kubernetes. About the technology The tools to monitor and manage software delivery and deployment can be complex to set up and intimidating to learn. But with the “GitOps“ method, you can manage your entire Kubernetes infrastructure with Git pull requests, giving you a single control interface and making it easy to assess and roll back changes! Billy Yuen, Alexander Matyushentsev, Todd Ekenstam, and Jesse Suen are principal engineers for the Intuit platform. They are widely recognized as industry leads in GitOps for Kubernetes, having presented numerous related talks at industry conferences.

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Book SynopsisIn this explosive memoir, a political consultant and technology whistleblower reveals the disturbing truth about the multi-billion-dollar data industry, revealing to the public how companies are getting richer using our personal information and exposing how Cambridge Analytica exploited weaknesses in privacy laws to help elect Donald Trump.When Brittany Kaiser joined Cambridge Analytica the UK-based political consulting firm funded by conservative billionaire and Donald Trump patron Robert Mercer she was an idealistic young professional working on her fourth degree in human rights law and international relations. A veteran of Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, Kaiser's goal was to utilize data for humanitarian purposes, most notably to prevent genocide and human rights abuses. But her experience inside Cambridge Analytica opened her eyes to the tremendous risks that this unregulated industry poses to privacy and democracy.Targeted is Kaiser's eyewitness chronicle of the dramatic and distu

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Book SynopsisOver the course of a generation, algorithms have gone from mathematical abstractions to powerful mediators of daily life. In evolving from static computer programs hand-coded by engineers to the products of machine learning, these technologies have made our lives more efficient, more entertaining, and, sometimes, better informed. At the same time, complex algorithms are increasingly crushing the basic rights of individual citizens. Allegedly anonymized datasets and statistical models routinely leak our most sensitive personal information; applications for everything from loans to college reflect racial and gender bias. Meanwhile, users manipulate algorithms to game search engines, spam filters, online reviewing services and navigation apps. Understanding and improving the science behind the algorithms that run our lives is quickly becoming one of the most pressing issues of this century. Traditional solutions, such as laws, regulations and watchdog groups, have proven woefully inadequate, at best. Derived from the cutting-edge of scientific research, The Ethical Algorithm offers a new approach: a set of principled solutions based on the emerging and exciting science of socially aware algorithm design. Weaving together the science behind algorithm design with stories of citizens, lawyers, scientists, and activists experiencing the trial-and-error of research in real-time, Michael Kearns and Aaron Roth present a strikingly original way forward, showing how we can begin to work together to protect people from the unintended impacts of algorithms--and, sometimes, protect the science that could save us from ourselves.Trade Review...the authors take us on a journey through the main socio-algorithmic problems representing social constraints upon algorithms, their consequences and trade-offs. [T]hey provide concrete technical solutions for the challenges discussed throughout the book's 5 chapters: privacy, fairness, user-data-algorithm feedback loop, data-driven scientific discoveries and (brief) thoughts on the ethical issues (transparency, accountability, morality) yet to be pursued scientifically. * ESSSAT News & Reviews *It is elegantly written, easy to read and full of entertaining examples. * Martin Peterson, Prometheus *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Algorithmic Privacy: The Power of Randomization Chapter 2: Fairness: Discriminating Algorithms Chapter 3: Games People Play (With Algorithms) Chapter 4: Lost in the Garden: Led Astray by Data Chapter 5: Risky Business: Interpretability, Morality, and the Singularity Some Concluding Thoughts Acknowledgements Notes

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Book SynopsisSeparating hype from fact, this text investigates the fate of embodiment in an information age. It relates three issues: information as an entity separate from the material forms that carry it; the construction of the Cyborg; and the dismantling of the humanist "subject" in cybernetic discourse.

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Book SynopsisTerms and phrases such as the global village and the medium is the message are now part of the lexicon, and McLuhan''s theories continue to challenge our sensibilities and our assumptions about how and what we communicate.This reissue of Understanding Media marks the thirtieth anniversary (1964-1994) of Marshall McLuhan''s classic expose on the state of the then emerging phenomenon of mass media. Terms and phrases such as the global village and the medium is the message are now part of the lexicon, and McLuhan''s theories continue to challenge our sensibilities and our assumptions about how and what we communicate.There has been a notable resurgence of interest in McLuhan''s work in the last few years, fueled by the recent and continuing conjunctions between the cable companies and the regional phone companies, the appearance of magazines such as WiRed, and the development of new media models and information ecologies, many of which were spawned from MIT''s Media Lab. In effect, media now begs to be redefined. In a new introduction to this edition of Understanding Media, Harper''s editor Lewis Lapham reevaluates McLuhan''s work in the light of the technological as well as the political and social changes that have occurred in the last part of this century.

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Book SynopsisWhen Face Recognition Goes Wrong explores the myriad waysthat humans and machines make mistakes in facial recognition.Adopting a critical stance throughout, the book explores whyand how humans and machines make mistakes, covering topicsincluding racial and gender biases, neuropsychological disorders,and widespread algorithm problems. The book features personalanecdotes alongside real-world examples to showcase the oftenlife-changing consequences of facial recognition going wrong.These range from problems with everyday social interactionsthrough to eyewitness identification leading to miscarriages ofjustice and border control passport verification.Concluding with a look to the future of facial recognition, theauthor asks the world's leading experts what are the big questionsthat still need to be answered, and can we train humans andmachines to be super recognisers? This book is

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Book SynopsisThe original edition of this accessible and interdisciplinary textbook was the first to consider the ethical issues of digital media from a global, cross-cultural perspective. This third edition has been thoroughly updated to incorporate the latest research and developments, including the rise of Big Data, AI, and the Internet of Things. The book’s case studies and pedagogical material have also been extensively revised and updated to include such watershed events as the Snowden revelations, #Gamergate, the Cambridge Analytica scandal, privacy policy developments, and the emerging Chinese Social Credit System.New sections include “Death Online,” “Slow/Fair Technology”, and material on sexbots. The “ethical toolkit” that introduces prevailing ethical theories and their applications to the central issues of privacy, copyright, pornography and violence, and the ethics of cross-cultural communication online, has likewise been revised and expanded. Each topic and theory are interwoven throughout the volume with detailed sets of questions, additional resources, and suggestions for further research and writing. Together, these enable readers to foster careful reflection upon, writing about, and discussion of these issues and their possible resolutions.Retaining its student- and classroom-friendly approach, Digital Media Ethics will continue to be the go-to textbook for anyone getting to grips with this important topic.Trade Review“The third edition of Digital Media Ethics, like its two predecessors, is an impressive pedagogical accomplishment, a rare bird in its field. Very few other textbooks tackle the same issues and do so with the same focus on student comprehension. … Digital Media Ethics is among the very best textbooks on technology ethics (if not on ethics overall) available.”New Media & Society Table of ContentsForeword by Luciano Floridi Preface to the Third Edition Acknowledgments 1 Central Issues in the Ethics of Digital Media 2 Privacy in the (Post-)Digital Era? 3 Copying and Distributing via Digital Media: Copyright, Copyleft, Global Perspectives 4 Friendship, Death Online, Slow/Fair Technology, and Democracy 5 Still More Ethical Issues: Digital Sex, Sexbots and Games 6 Digital Media Ethics: Overview, Frameworks, Resources References Index

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Book SynopsisA Financial Times 'Best Thing I Read This Year' LONGLISTED FOR THE FT & MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDGoogle. Amazon. Facebook. The modern world is defined by vast digital monopolies turning ever-larger profits. Those of us who consume the content that feeds them are farmed for the purposes of being sold ever more products and advertising. Those that create the content – the artists, writers and musicians – are finding they can no longer survive in this unforgiving economic landscape. But it didn’t have to be this way. In Move Fast and Break Things, Jonathan Taplin offers a succinct and powerful history of how online life began to be shaped around the values of the entrepreneurs like Peter Thiel and Larry Page who founded these all-powerful companies. Their unprecedented growth came at the heavy cost of tolerating piracy of books, music and film, while at the same time promoting opaque business practices and subordinating the privacy of individual users to create the surveillance marketing monoculture in which we now live.It is the story of a massive reallocation of revenue in which $50 billion a year has moved from the creators and owners of content to the monopoly platforms. With this reallocation of money comes a shift in power. Google, Facebook and Amazon now enjoy political power on par with Big Oil and Big Pharma, which in part explains how such a tremendous shift in revenues from creators to platforms could have been achieved and why it has gone unchallenged for so long.And if you think that’s got nothing to do with you, their next move is to come after your jobs. Move Fast and Break Things is a call to arms, to say that is enough is enough and to demand that we do everything in our power to create a different future.Trade ReviewTaplin wields his axe mercilessly...by the end of this book you will agree with Taplin that the tech firms are abusing their monopoly power to rip us off and debase our culture - breaking the world as he sees it...It is time for consumers to break back. This manifesto is a punchy start. * The Sunday Times *A bracing, unromantic account of how the internet was captured…Move Fast and Break Things is a timely and useful book * The Observer *Taplin is angry as hell about the immense size and power of the tech giants, and has a compelling pitch for why we should all be worried too * The Evening Standard *Comprehensive…Where Taplin excels is by putting all this into the context of the changing global economy * The Times *A new analysis of the dark side of the digital revolution...Taplin goes beyond familiar critiques * Financial Times *Taplin’s sense of outrage is palpable and his case is often compelling * The Guardian *A radical remedy * The Economist *A nuanced look at the downside of what is glibly tossed around as "disruption" by various cyber-messianic blowhards. Taplin is hunting big game; it is his contention that the giants of the cyberworld-from Google to Amazon-are threats to the fundamental foundations of democracy and that they also cement inequality into our systems in new and dangerous ways * Esquire *Jonathan Taplin's Move Fast and Break Things argues that the radical libertarian ideology and monopolistic greed of many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs helped to decimate the livelihoods of musicians and is now undermining the communal idealism of the early internet * Walter Isaacson, New York Times Book Review *Mr Taplin brings an informed perspective to his task * Wall Street Journal *Jonathan Taplin's new book could not be more timely. Twenty years after the initial euphoria of the Web, ten years after the invention of social media, it's time to stop breaking things and start thinking seriously about the new habitat we're creating. Move Fast and Break Things provides a blueprint for a future that humans can live in * Frank Rose, author of The Art of Immersion *Move Fast and Break Things goes on my bookshelf beside a few other indispensable signposts in the maze of life in the 21st Century--The Technological Society by Jacques Ellul, The Image by Daniel Boorstin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin, The Medium is the Message by Marshall McLuhan, The Media Monopoly by Ben Bagdikian, Christ and the Media by Malcolm Muggeridge, and Future Shock by Alvin Toffler. I pray the deepest and highest prayer I can get to that this clarion warning is heeded. The survival of our species is at stake * T Bone Burnett, Oscar-Winning Songwriter, soundtrack and record producer *Jonathan Taplin's Move Fast and Break Things, a rock and roll memoir cum internet history cum artists' manifesto, provides a bracing antidote to corporate triumphalism - and a reminder that musicians and writers need a place at the tech table and, more to the point, a way to make a decent living * Jeffrey Toobin, author of American Heiress *A powerful argument for reducing inequality and revolutionizing how we use the Web for the benefit of the many rather than the few * Kirkus Review *Jonathan Taplin, more than anyone I know, can articulate the paralyzing complexities that have arisen from the intertwining of the tech and music industries. He counters the catastrophic implications for musicians with solutions and inspiration for a renaissance. He shows the way for artists to reclaim and reinvent subversion, rather than be in servitude to Big Tech. Every musician and every creator should read this book. * Rosanne Cash, Grammy-winning Singer and Songwriter *An absolute must-read for anyone who wants to gain a little savvy in the internet era * Newsweek *Insightful.... Taplin provides a keen, thorough look at the present and future of Americans' lives as influenced and manipulated by the technological behemoths on which they've come to depend. His work is certainly food for thought * Publishers Weekly *A breakthrough, must-read book… a tour de force—a compelling, story-driven work focusing on the handful of men who have shaped and essentially taken over the massive tech industry. Along the way, Taplin tells his own personal story with charm and insight. If you want to understand what has happened to our country and where tech will take us in the era of Trump, put aside some time to read this book. It will take your breath away * Alternet *Jonathan Taplin's excellent new book explains exactly how Google, Facebook and Amazon are undermining democratic institutions, accelerating the rise of oligarchy...and destroying both cultural and economic opportunities for millions of people. * The Chicago Tribune *

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Book SynopsisDo digital networks make a difference to the scope, scale and severity of social harm? Considering four distinct digital affordances for crime (access, concealment, evasion and incitement) this book asks whether they are simply new packaging for old problems, with no greater effect on society overall – or is cyberculture significantly escalating illegality? Matthew David gives fresh insights into online harms and behaviours in the fields of hate, obscenity, corruptions of citizenship and appropriation, offering a comprehensive and integrated approach for those both new and experienced in the field of cybercrime.Table of Contents1. Introduction Part I: Hate 2. Terrorism and Hate Crime: From the Long Fuse to Hate Speech 3. Bullying, Stalking and Trolling Part II: Obscenity 4. Pornography and Violent Video Games 5. Child Abuse Imagery, Abuse and Grooming Part III: Corruptions of Citizenship 6. Privacy, Surveillance, Whistleblowers and Hacktivism 7. Fake News, Echo Chambers and Citizen Journalism Part IV: Appropriation 8. Fraud, Extortion and Identity Theft 9. Sharing Software, Music and Visual Content 10. Conclusions

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Book SynopsisThe concept of transhumanism emerged in the middle of the 20th century, and has influenced discussions around AI, brain–computer interfaces, genetic technologies and life extension. Despite its enduring influence in the public imagination, a fully developed philosophy of transhumanism has not yet been presented. In this new book, leading philosopher Stefan Lorenz Sorgner explores the critical issues that link transhumanism with digitalization, gene technologies and ethics. He examines the history and meaning of transhumanism and asks bold questions about human perfection, cyborgs, genetically enhanced entities, and uploaded minds. Offering insightful reflections on values, norms and utopia, this will be an important guide for readers interested in contemporary digital culture, gene ethics, and policy making.Table of ContentsTranshumanism: In a Nutshell On a Silicon- based Transhumanism On a Carbon- based Transhumanism A Fictive Ethics The End as a New Beginning

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Book SynopsisAcademic readers in science and technology studies, sociology, the digital humanities, digital criminology.Trade Review"An unusually incisive and pragmatic approach to what it means to live with information. Synthesizing thinking from a huge range of disciplines and domains from our worlds of plural information, the book effectively provides a guide to how to live, situate, engage or extricate oneself." Adrian Mackenzie, Australian National University "A breath of fresh air, a book about data, but uniquely framed as the lively matter of information -- in the sense of 'being in-formation' - and always bringing us back to what makes all this information matter." David Ribes, University of Washington"A rich resource for anyone concerned with how information – understood as always material and relational – comes to matter, its dominant formations as data, and how data could be made differently." Lucy Suchman, Lancaster University "An intriguing account of how data becomes information and is then taken up in material interventions of surveillance and control. By drawing on a wide range of literature, the book demonstrates the complex and ethical relations involved in making information matter in different worlds." Evelyn Ruppert, Goldsmiths, University of LondonTable of Contents1. Introduction 2. Understanding making-information-matter together 3. Studying materializations – a methodology of life cycles Interlude: Four practices of making information matter 4. Association 5. Conversion 6. Secrecy 7. Speculation 8. The ethics of making information matter

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Book SynopsisBeing an adult is like trying to fold a fitted sheet.I''m just a girl, standing in front of a salad, asking it to be a donut.I was hot until my photoshop free-trial expired.From Instagram to Twitter, we all want to be a social media star these days. But behind your phone screen are those perfectly filtered lives all they''re really cracked up to be? For millennials everywhere comes a book that says what we''re all really thinking. Whether it''s stuffing your face with pizza while scrolling through Gigi Hadid''s feed or experiencing life at the speed of fifteen WTF''s per hour, this is the real life struggle of getting that double tap and achieving #goals.

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Book SynopsisAfter many years on the fringe, online counselling has rapidly become mainstream practice, propelled by the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet too often practitioners assume they can transition from in-person counselling without need for further training. In this essential book, Sarah Worley-James brings her many years' experience of online counselling and supervision to explore with the reader the practical and technical requirements of the work and also, importantly, the relational issues that working online brings. The book covers video, audio and text-based counselling, using vivid vignettes and case examples to bring to life its contents. All aspects, from transitioning and setting up the room and the equipment needed through to contracts, data storage and, above all, risk, are covered, with practical exercises to help you gain confidence in using these emerging media to their full creative potential.Trade Review'Reading Online Counselling made me realise just of how far online therapy has matured as a profession over the past 10 years. Sarah's warm and inviting style of writing nails the subject of online therapy from page one. Any online therapist, whether experienced or not, will find so much in this book that will benefit them and, consequently, their online clients.' Pip Weitz, Training Director, Academy for Online Therapy - 'This is sure to be a core text for counselling courses.' Adrian Rhodes, Chair, ACTO; President, European Confederation of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies (ECPP) - 'Sarah Worley-James has written the book we have been waiting for. It is up-to-date and has a clear, inclusive, user-friendly style.' Anne Stokes, Patron of ACTO; Director (retired) of Online Training Ltd - 'The book is an excellent resource for those new to online therapy and practitioners who are fine-tuning their existing online knowledge and skills.' Jane Evans MA, BACP (Senior Accred), author of Online Counselling and Guidance Skills (2009).Table of ContentsIntroduction, 1. What is online counselling? 2. Transitioning to online counselling, 3. Getting started, 4. Ethical practice online, 5. Developing a therapeutic relationship through video, 6. Developing a therapeutic relationship in audio and telephone counselling, 7. Developing a therapeutic relationship in text-based counselling, 8. Assessing risk online, 9. Working with risk online, 10. Supervision for online counsellors, 11. Self-care for online counselling

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Book SynopsisIn a world in which more and more fake news is being spread, it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish truth from lies, knowledge from opinion. Disinformation campaigns are not only perceived as a political problem, but the fake news debate is also about fundamental philosophical questions: What is truth? How can we recognize it? Is there such a thing as objective facts or is everything socially constructed? This book explains how echo chambers and alternative worldviews emerge, it blames post-factual thinking for the current truth crisis, and it shows how we can escape the threat of truth relativism.Table of ContentsFilter bubbles and echo chambers.- Conspiracy theories.- Fake news.- Epistemology of the post-factual.- Theories of truth.- Information and knowledge.

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Book SynopsisThoughts are free - but they are no longer secret. Today, our data is automatically stored and analyzed by algorithms ”behind the cloud” - where we no longer have control over our data. Our most private and secret information is entrusted to the internet and permanently collected, stacked and linked to our digital twins. With and without our consent. "Privacy is dead", as Mark Zuckerberg put it. The question is: How did we get there? And, if the actors behind the cloud know everything: what is still private today, and are there any personal secrets at all when the "gods" behind the cloud possibly know us better than our friends and family?The book uses a wealth of case studies (e.g. cryptocurrencies, journalism, digital traces of sexual preferences) to develop a typology of privacy in the history of ideas. Furthermore, it shows the areas of life in which big data and artificial intelligence have already made inroads. This book is a translation of the original German 2nd edition Die Rückseite der Cloud by Peter Seele and Lucas Zapf, published by Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature in 2020. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation.Table of ContentsIntroduction: The reverse side of the cloud.- Part 1: The secret private - introduction and derivation.- "Privacy is dead": How could it come to this?- Part 2: Symptoms of the structural change of the private.- Symptoms of an immanent digital omniscience.- Part 3: Theory of the structural change of the private.- Functional systematics of the structural change of the private.- Summary of the theory or: Thoughts are free - but no longer secret.- Conclusions.- Outlook: Digital authenticity - an immersive consumer experience.

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Book SynopsisThe Cult of the Dead Cow is the story of the oldest, most respected and most famous hacking group of all time. Its members invented the the concept of hacktivism, released both the top tool for cracking passwords and the reigning technique for controlling computers from afar, and spurred development of Snowden's anonymity tool of choice. With its origins in the earliest days of the Internet, the cDc is full of oddball characters--spies, activists, musicians, and politicians--who are now woven into the top ranks of the American establishment. Today, this small group and their followers represent the best hope for making technology a force for good instead of for surveillance and oppression. Like a modern (and real) illuminati, cDc members have had the ears of presidents, secretaries of defense, and the CEO of Google. The Cult of the Dead Cow shows how we got into the mess we find ourselves in today, where governments and corporations hold immense power over individuals, and and how we are finally fighting back.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Pederson brings a particular and consistent understanding of what a 'game' is, one that distinguishes her work from that of other gaming scholars."—Kevin Hamilton, author of Lookout America! The Secret Hollywood Studio at the Heart of the Cold War"Gaming Utopia is meticulously researched and provides original insights through its focus on the relationship between avant-garde traditions and political theories of emancipatory social change. . . . It uses highly accessible language and will most definitely be of interest to a general audience interested in the history and culture of videogames, as well as in issues relating to activism and emancipatory social change."—Judith Aston, editor of I-Docs: The Evolving Practices of Interactive DocumentaryTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. The Avant-Garde Plays2. Action, Participation, and the Digital Avant-Garde3. Cybernetic Ecologies of Art and Counterculture4. Gaming Electronic Civil Disobedience5. A Dreampolitik of Persuasive and Other Queer GamesConclusion: Unfinished ProcessesReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisAn anthropological account of how rankings, statistics and numbers are reshaping the world we live inTrade Review'A new and compelling argument for why so many institutions continue to be spellbound by rankings and metrics - despite the cultural carnage they cause in schools, hospitals, universities, corporations and governmental agencies. How can we halt this 'death by audit' craze that has swept through modern society like a deadly virus? In this thought provoking book, the authors develop a radical agenda that will strike fear into number-loving technocrats around the world.' -- Peter Fleming, author of 'Dark Academia: How Universities Die''If you want to go and see a film, choose a university or find the best restaurant, you are likely to consult some sort of ranking ... In this timely work, Shore and Wright ask us to question this contemporary common sense and the market managerialism that lies behind it. Can we imagine a world without audit, one in which our choices are not counted, and trust does not rely on numbers?' -- Professor Martin Parker, University of Bristol Business School'The expansion of audits, indicators and rankings has become a pressing issue for governance and democracy. Cris Shore and Susan Wright build on decades of work to provide a powerful and definitive critical diagnosis of the effects of this audit culture on individuals, public organisations and society. Their book should be essential reading for scholars and policy makers.' -- Michael Power, Professor of Accounting, London School of Economics and Political Science'A visionary book. Two anthropologists piece together a global jigsaw: how for 25 years practices of accountability have been transforming almost every aspect of organisational and personal life. A brilliantly lucid, vigorously argued critique, clear-eyed about the structures that undermine us.' -- Marilyn Strathern, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology, University of CambridgeTable of ContentsList of Figures Abbreviations Acknowledgements Series Preface Preface 1. Introduction: Audit Culture and the New World (Dis)Order 2. Rankings as Populist Project: Governing by Numbers and Hollowing out Democracy 3. The Big Four Accountancy Firms and the Evolution of Contemporary Capitalism 4. Global Governance through Standards, Seduction and Soft Power 5. Metrics, Managerialism and Market Making: Unlocking Value in Healthcare 6. Reforming Higher Education: The Kafkaesque Pursuit of ‘World Class’ Status 7. The New Subjects of Audit: Performance Management and Quantified Selves 8. Conclusion: Repurposing Audit – Restoring Trust, Accountability and Democracy Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisFor decades, lesbian feminists across the United States and Canada have created information to build movements and survive in a world that doesn''t want them. In Information Activism Cait McKinney traces how these women developed communication networks, databases, and digital archives that formed the foundation for their work. Often learning on the fly and using everything from index cards to computers, these activists brought people and their visions of justice together to organize, store, and provide access to information. Focusing on the transition from paper to digital-based archival techniques from the 1970s to the present, McKinney shows how media technologies animate the collective and unspectacular labor that sustains social movements, including their antiracist and trans-inclusive endeavors. By bringing sexuality studies to bear on media history, McKinney demonstrates how groups with precarious access to control over information create their own innovative and resourcefTrade Review“In an age when technological innovation itself is often assumed to make the world a better place, Cait McKinney reminds us that, for the past fifty years, lesbian feminist activists have resourcefully patched together their own heterodox information infrastructures—composed of telephone hotlines and spiral-bound notebooks, index cards and digitization technologies, hacked tools and customized protocols—to serve clear social and ethical ends. Their information activism enabled them to create systems of connection and care that are responsive to human need, rather than, as is so common today, to advertisers and algorithms.” -- Shannon Mattern, author of * Code and Clay, Data and Dirt: Five Thousand Years of Urban Media *“Through what might seem like an unlikely mashup of lesbian feminism and information studies, Cait McKinney illuminates both in original and compelling ways. The novel concept of information activism is a valuable contribution to understandings of social movements and counterpublics. And McKinney sheds new light on often misunderstood or neglected histories of lesbian feminism by exploring amateur obsessions with circulating information, including digital media. Together, information and lesbian feminism become unexpectedly sexy, erotic, and affectively charged.” -- Ann Cvetkovich, author of * Depression: A Public Feeling *"Steeped in the words, culture, vernacular, ephemera, and ways of interacting that have been refined by decades of lesbians, queers, and other feminists. The details are delightful. The writing is warm. Individuals and communities come to life on the page." -- Alexandra Juhasz * Lambda Literary Review *"What can we extrapolate from the sparse log that is left behind? In Information Activism, McKinney ... approaches this question with palpable respect for those doing the work at the time and with a sharp curiosity for the pieces of information that they didn’t leave behind. Each chapter examines a different kind of network—newsletters, hotlines, indexing projects, and archives—and centers the women who created and maintained them to make lifesaving, community-sustaining information available and accessible." -- Meerabelle Jesuthasan * The Nation *"Saturated with vivid historical detail, a testimony to McKinney’s extensive archival research. . . . The book’s intimate depictions of pre-digital information management invite its readers to reflect on the staggering amount of slow, painstaking technology work that went into feminism’s second wave." -- Deborah Thurman * Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory *"I loved reading this book. . . . McKinney illustrates the interconnectedness of past social movements, present activism, and the attainability of liberatory futures." -- aems emswiler * Information & Culture *"McKinney's Information Activism reinforces why information activism matters. . . . McKinney's work does not feel wholly bound to either the past or present. Like many meaningful queer projects, it is oriented toward a sense of futurity: a perpetual process of improvisation, revision, and worldmaking." -- Harris Kornstein * Catalyst *"McKinney compellingly argues against strict and discrete definitions of print and digital, drawing instead a through-line between current pressing questions of ethics, access, and search retrieval on the one hand and past archiving practices of lesbian feminist activists on the other. . . . This work is a fascinating read for scholars of media and information, archives, queer histories, and activism. It raises a number of important questions about medium-specific affordances, privacy, and access that merit further study." -- Nelanthi Hewa * Canadian Journal Of Communication *"Information Activism is a critical celebration of activist-archivism, practiced via newsletters, crisis lines, periodicals, and other archive-community hybrid spaces. . . . Through a refusal of the safe, straight archive, and an embrace of strategic opacity and theft . . . McKinney invite[s] us to an archive that loves us back. Information is care, passed in the verb of love for ourselves and for each other, and these texts sustain kinship lines both new and old." -- Sarah Cavar * Feminist Media Studies *"Information Activism is a perfect book for readers interested in lesbian feminist activist histories and how social movements are sustained through old and new media technologies and productions. . . . McKinney offers readers a perfect entrée into thinking critically about LGBTQ+ archives and communities. Media studies and archival studies scholars might consider joining together to build on McKinney’s timely and important research to center the role that community archives play in building and sustaining community networks." -- Jamie A. Lee * Journal of the History of Sexuality *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. The Internet That Lesbians Built: Newsletter Networks 33 2. Calling to Talk and Listening Well: Information as Care at Telephone Hotlines 67 3. The Indexers: Dreaming of Computers while Shuffling Paper Cards 105 4. Feminist Digitization Practices at the Lesbian Herstory Archives 153 Epilogue. Doing Lesbian Feminism in an Age of Information Abundance 205 Notes 217 Bibliography 261 Index 281

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Book SynopsisJust about any social need is now met with an opportunity to "connect" through digital means. But this convenience is not free—it is purchased with vast amounts of personal data transferred through shadowy backchannels to corporations using it to generate profit. The Costs of Connection uncovers this process, this "data colonialism," and its designs for controlling our lives—our ways of knowing; our means of production; our political participation. Colonialism might seem like a thing of the past, but this book shows that the historic appropriation of land, bodies, and natural resources is mirrored today in this new era of pervasive datafication. Apps, platforms, and smart objects capture and translate our lives into data, and then extract information that is fed into capitalist enterprises and sold back to us. The authors argue that this development foreshadows the creation of a new social order emerging globally—and it must be challenged. Confronting the alarming degree of surveillance already tolerated, they offer a stirring call to decolonize the internet and emancipate our desire for connection.Trade Review"A profound exploration of how the ceaseless extraction of information about our intimate lives is remaking both global markets and our very selves. The Costs of Connection represents an enormous step forward in our collective understanding of capitalism's current stage, a stage in which the final colonial input is the raw data of human life. Challenging, urgent, and bracingly original."—Naomi Klein, Gloria Steinem Chair of Media, Culture, and Feminist Studies, Rutgers University"A provocative tour-de-force. A powerful interrogation of the power of data in our networked age. Through an enchanting critique of different aspects of our data soaked society, Nick Couldry and Ulises A. Mejias invite the reader to reconsider their assumptions about the moral, political, and economic order that makes data-driven technologies possible."—danah boyd, Microsoft Research and founder of Data & Society"There's a land grab occurring right now, and it's for your data and your freedom: companies are not only surveilling you, they're increasingly influencing and controlling your behavior. This paradigm-shifting book explains the new colonialism at the heart of modern computing, and serves as a needed wake-up call to everyone who cares about our future relationship with technology."—Bruce Schneier, author of Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-Connected World"Couldry and Mejias have written a profoundly important book, demonstrating the lasting value of social theory to the interpretation (and improvement) of our new digital reality. They deeply understand the nature of platform capitalism. They draw striking and rigorously reasoned parallels between modern tech giants and the firms and governments that exploited colonies in centuries past. And they advance an agenda for decolonizing data that promotes a healthier ecology of online interaction. This book is an essential guide to understanding the depths of the crises in data protection, privacy, and automation that we now face."—Frank Pasquale, Professor of Law, University of Maryland Carey School of Law"Couldry and Mejias show that data colonialism is not a metaphor. It is a process that expands many dark chapters of the past into our shiny new world of smartphones, smart TVs, and smart stores. This book rewards the reader with important historical context, fascinating examples, clear writing, and unexpected insights scattered throughout."—Joseph Turow, University of Pennsylvania"This book is a must-read for those grappling with how the global data economy reproduces long-standing social injustice, and what must be done to counter this phenomenon. With a feast of insights embedded in visceral historical and contemporary illustrations, the authors brilliantly push the reader to rethink the relations between technology, power, and inequality."—Payal Arora, author of The Next Billion Users: Digital Life beyond the West"This is a deeply critical engagement with the systems that enable 'data colonialism' to extend its reach into the past, present and future of human life itself. Couldry and Mejias provide a comprehensive and well-considered challenge to the seeming inevitability of this transformative development in capitalism. Theirs is a giant step forward along the path toward rediscovering the meaning and possibility of self-determination. It is not too late to join in!"—Oscar H. Gandy, Jr., Emeritus Professor, Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania"This book is among the most insightful and important contributions to our understanding of the political economy of data and the 'internet of things.' It brings together historical analysis, critical theory, and a trenchant sense of urgency to reveal what's really at stake as we choose to send information through everything and connect our bodies and minds to streams of data."—Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy"Nick Couldry and Ulises A. Mejias go digging deeply into the digital: its spaces, its layers, its deployments. One of their guiding efforts concerns what it actually takes to have this digital capacity in play. It is not an innocent event: it is in some ways closer to an extractive sector, and this means there is a price we pay for its existence."—Saskia Sassen, author of Expulsions"The authors effectively blend their particular skills: Couldry applies critical theory to the transformation of media, and Mejias concentrates on the failings of social media to affect political change. Those studying political science, information technology, and communications at the undergraduate level will grapple with the authors' arguments about whether data can be colonized and exploited in the same way labor and resources were under traditional forms of colonialism. Highly recommended."—H. L. Katz, CHOICE"In contrast to other recent authors who see this collection of data for profit as a new type of capitalism...Couldry and Mejias argue that what is taking place under data colonialism is merely the extension of capitalism as it has developed over the last two centuries....Where the book shines is in using the theory underpinning the idea of data colonialism to articulate sites of resistance."—Laura Carter, LSE Review of Books"The process of data colonialism is a highly useful analytical framework for understanding the ever-growing role of data in modern life. Couldry and Mejias consider this framework within a truly global scope and provide a highly approachable text that synthesizes economics, history, and media studies scholarship."—Ben Pettis, Critical Studies in Media Communication"In this provocative, consequential book, Couldry and Mejias theorize the dynamics of change in contemporary capitalism as grounded in a new form of data colonialism....[The authors] delineate intriguing parallels between historical processes of colonial expansion by taking over land and other natural resources and contemporary processes of mining personal data as inputs for capitalism."—Sara Schoonmaker, Social Forces"Couldry and Mejias are fitting the internet, in all its 'now-now-now' insistence, into a much broader sweep of history than other commentators on the digital era have attempted."—Wendy M. Grossman, ZDNet"the book shares the core ambition of . . . Shoshana Zuboff's (2019) The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. Yet, arguably, by advancing the lens of data colonialism and drawing heavily on Marxist social theory, Couldry and Mejias have a more radical critique of capitalism in mind, one that historically ties it to colonialist efforts an appropriating, exploiting and controlling resources, redistributing benefits and spreading specific ideologies. . . . What is instead at stake, argue Couldry and Mejias, is a shift in the raw material that capitalism is appropriating and controlling: it is human life itself. . . . the major strength of the argument lies in a rich theoretically driven narrative that weaves together multiple strands of classic social theory – from Marx and Foucault to decolonial theory – and connects them with contemporary analyses of data justice and the legal-commercial complex regarding personal data."—Stine Lomborg, European Journal of CommunicationTable of ContentsPreface: Colonized by Data 1. The Capitalization of Life without Limit 2. Cloud Empire Interlude: On Colonialism and the Decolonial Turn 3. The Coloniality of Data Relations 4. The Hollowing Out of the Social 5. Data and the Threat to Human Autonomy 6. Decolonizing Data Postscript: Another Path Is Possible

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Co-Winner of the Silver Medal in Business Technology, Axiom Business Book Awards""One of the Financial Times' Summer Books of 2019: Business""One of the Financial Times' Best Books of 2019: Technology""12 must-read books for 2019 as recommended by Tech Crunch's Extra Crunch readers""One of Five Books' Best Economics Books of 2019""University of Chicago 2019 Recommended Reading""One of Handelsblatt's Best Technology Books of 2019""One of Época Negócios's Best Books of 2019""A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year""A Project Syndicate Best Read in 2019""A Financial Times Best Book of the Year""Winner of the Richard A. Lester Prize for the Outstanding Book in Industrial Relations and Labor Economics, Industrial Relations Section of Princeton University""A superb guide to 21st-century automation and its disruptive effects."---John Harris, The Guardian"The Technology Trap may well ensnare doom-seekers’ attention with its ominous-sounding title. But it should ultimately hearten anyone who reads it." * The Economist *"Anybody interested in the economic impact of digital and AI, in particular on jobs, will want to read [The Technology Trap]."---Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist"[Frey] takes a provocative, original long view on current concerns, examining the fallout from past technological advances . . . to mass production and artificial intelligence."---Andrew Hill, Financial Times, Summer Books of 2019"I have been lost in [The Technology Trap] for the last 10 days."---John Harris, The Guardian"Frey’s analysis is worth taking seriously because the Oxford economic historian and economist has researched his subject deeply and has co-authored one of the most widely cited studies on automation . . . . Frey’s story is well argued and — at times — deeply alarming about the stability of western democracies given he predicts the further concentration of wealth in a few hands and in even fewer locations"---John Thornhill, Financial Times"An excellent analysis of past industrial revolutions, the technologies that emerged within them, and the way societies adapted to those changes."---Adi Gaskell, Forbes"As [Frey] points out in his new book The Technology Trap, for all that the robots may make the world more local, they may have other painful side-effects, putting millions of people out of work and sparking an almighty backlash."---Ed Conway, The Times"The Technology Trap is the perfect book for higher ed people to read . . . . deeply researched and [convincingly] argued."---Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Education"If you're an optimist about the robotic future, you likely hear talk that we're all going to lose our jobs or suffer a big pay cut, and tell friends to relax — the new technology revolution is going to turn out like all the others since the dawn of the Industrial Age. But if history is your best hope, you should probably think again: [The Technology Trap has] a strong case."---Steve Levine, Axios"Anybody interested in the economic impact of digital and AI, in particular on jobs, will want to read Carl Frey’s new book."---Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist"In his bracing new book The Technology Trap, Carl Frey extrapolates from the history of the industrial revolution to offer a vision of the future in which Amazon Go, AI assistants and autonomous vehicles are 'worker replacement' technologies."---Greg Williams, Wired"A fascinating history of technical change."---Chris Dillow, Stumbling and Mumbling"One of Frey’s most salient points is that our attitudes and actions toward technology can play a pivotal role in how it impacts us. A lot of stock has been put into Frey and Osborne’s prediction of 47 percent automation. But if Frey’s book gets even half the attention the paper got, it should serve to quell some of our fears around a bleak machine-dominated future."---Vanessa Bates Ramirez, Singularity Hub"Carl Benedikt Frey has written an important and timely book . . . . A great deal of effort, thought, and scholarship went into its writing, and it shows. There is much food for thought here and I can envision this assigned in upper division economics classes as well as some graduate courses."---Alexander Field, EH.net"Frey offers a refreshingly human-centered analysis of technological progress."---Oscar Schwartz, Stanford Social Innovation Review"It’s clear The Technology Trap has plenty to teach us, and should automatically be on the reading list of any serious policy maker or politician."---Ben Ramanauskas, Cap X"Frey explores automation and its consequences, taking the reader on a long sweep of UK and US industrial history that demonstrates the distinction between labour-enabling and labour-replacing technologies. . . As arguably the most comprehensive account of automation to date, this book deserves to be read widely"---Liam Kennedy, London School of Economics Review of Books"[The Technology Trap] offers a fascinating history of technology’s effects on employment from the Industrial Revolution to today and attempts to tackle how we might avoid a repeat of past social ills, as the Computer Revolution sweeps away a majority of human jobs."---Robert Elliott Smith, Medium"Narrator Richard Lyddon performs an almost impossible feat—making a very theoretical audiobook sound absorbable in a truly entertaining way . . . . Cheers to both Frey and Lyddon, a pairing that listeners may wish to hear again." * AudioFile Magazine *"An extremely useful history of the effect of technology on jobs and income inequality."---John Judis, The National Interest"[E]rudite and thoughtful, and the questions [The Technology Trap] raises are important and pertinent."---Joel Mokyr, Journal of Economic History"[Frey] investigates the short, medium, and long-term consequences of the Industrial Revolution on workers, finding that in fact the changes had extraordinarily negative consequences in the short term. His lessons from this pivotal moment in history can help technology leaders avoid the biggest risks today in how we design human/AI systems in the coming age of automation." * TechCrunch *"I highly recommend [The Technology Trap]."---Randal C. Picker"There is little reason to doubt the contemporary relevance of Frey’s analysis into the consequences of automation on the labour market, and the broader socio‐political implications of those technological changes which are highly anticipated to reshape our working lives and economic existence as we know it. The voluminous public commentary about technology, and public protests against the ramifications of technology change (such as taxi drivers decrying peer‐to‐peer ride‐sharing services which rely on smartphone apps), serve as sufficient warrant to pay attention to Frey’s contribution."---Mikayla Novak, Economic Record"Excellently written, full of examples and studies I hadn't previously encountered, and I learned a lot."---Tim Harford"[The Technology Trap] is a reminder that the future of work depends on policy choices. It is well worth reading."---Ravi Venkatesan, Book Review Literacy Trust"A . . . danger is that Luddite efforts to avoid the short-term costs associated with a new technology will end up denying access to its long-term benefits—something Carl Benedikt Frey, an Oxford academic, calls a 'technology trap'." * The Economist *"Excellent."---Masood Ahmed, CGD Policy Blog"Magisterial."---Chris Gibbons, Acumen"Frey’s observations and detailed historical analysis are useful for even those of us who cling to a more optimistic view of the long run."---Micheal Munger, Law & Liberty"[A] historical odyssey."---Jane Humphries and Benjamin Schneider, Project Syndicate"Frey provides a longue durée examination of the economic, social, and political interplay that drives technological change. Careful, erudite, elegantly written, and full of insight, the book sets the current overwrought debate about automation and AI on a firm contextualized footing."---Jayati Ghosh, Project Syndicate"Frey’s book is a history with a policy purpose . . . the book reveals an enormous scope of reading."---Kenneth Lipartito, American Historical Review"I was hugely impressed by this well-researched book, which provides a fascinating historical analysis of the interplay between government policy and technical change around the world. At the same time, it provides clues about how similar dynamics may shape the ongoing wave of automation, and what that might mean for wealth distribution within and among countries."---Sami Mahroum, Project Syndicate"Even when we learned enough about how the world works to change and manipulate it — to disrupt the status quo — stasis had its defenders. And it still does today. So many historical examples of this in the great 2019 book, The Technology Trap."---James Pethokoukis, AEI"The Technology Trap offers a rich account of the history of automation. . . . If anything, the corona-crisis has made this 2019 publication even more relevant. The lockdowns will likely accelerate automation in the workplace, and in the wake of the resulting economic decline and rising unemployment, questions around jobs and automation will become more politically fraught than they had been up to now."---Justin Nogarede, The Progressive Post"’The Technology Trap’ . . . made me look at the industrial revolution, invention, sleeping beauties, contexts and the forces that shape our societies differently. . . . Techies and economists love to point out that the textile machines the Luddites opposed in the 19th century brought greater prosperity to all — but it took three generations before the benefits kicked in, and there was a lot of pain and suffering in the meantime. And as Frey points out, history is made in the short term."---David Byrne, New York Times Book Review"A powerful historical synthesis on the question of the relationship between man and machine." * Wall Street Journal *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Masterful. . . . Immediately relevant. . . . Breaking the Social Media Prism answers important questions about the origins of our current political environment and suggests how existing platforms and reward systems might be redesigned to make things better. Bail’s scientific conclusions are refreshing in a space dominated by informed speculation, and the book offers hope that data-driven solutions can bring us back from the brink."---Jennifer Golbeck, Science"Smartly and engagingly challenges assumptions about how [ideological and cultural echo] chambers work."---Frank Bruni, New York Times"[Bail] draws on extensive interviews with social media users to explore the profound differences between people’s online and real-life personas, and lucidly details his own efforts to develop a new social media platform that cultivates more civil discourse. This is a persuasive and well-informed look at one of today’s most pressing social issues." * Publishers Weekly *"Every one of Bail's chapters threads together multiple lines of thought — some dating back decades or centuries — interweaving the frontiers of online social science research with the traditions they emerge from. . . . Bail's analysis of the problem of online polarization is clarifying and compelling."---Paul Rosenberg, Salon"[A] brilliant case . . . for social science research." * Library Journal *"Surprising. . . . Bail’s findings point to an interesting conclusion for the building of society: when it comes to bridging differences, in-person contact really helps."---Nathan Heller, New Yorker"Provides useful pointers for understanding online (mis)behavior." * Kirkus Reviews *"Wonderful. . . . Bail has provided social scientists, concerned citizens, and policymakers with an invaluable piece of work for understanding how social media is exacerbating our political divisions, and how we might forge a better future both online and off."---Thomas Koenig, Merion West"A really, really important book and really educational."---Sophie Roell, Five Books"Bail offers needed insights into the distortions that result when human persons are reduced to a set of data points."---Jeffrey Bilbro, New Atlantis"Bail delivers an efficient, engaging treatise on the polarizing effects of social media in the USA. . . . He expertly marshals evidence from his own research and modern computational social science to demonstrate how common narratives of social media miss the mark. . . . A thoughtful, compelling story of polarization on social media. . . .[Breaking the Social Media Prism] adds admirably to the dialog on political polarization. It synthesizes a body of research—both seminal and emerging—into a coherent picture, while making its own contributions. The prose is playfully conversational, accessible to a lay audience, and at fewer than 150 pages in the main text, refreshingly concise."---Jason Jeffrey Jones, Social Forces"Breaking The Social Media Prism challenges the accepted wisdom of echo chambers and algorithms and suggests that if we really want to solve political tribalism online the solution isn’t just some isolated thing called technology but also inside ourselves."---Samira Shackle, With Reason Podcast"Essential reading for many of us who are concerned with the impact of social media on civility and democracy."---Andrew Keen, Keen On podcast"Every once in a while, something comes along and causes a paradigm shift in its respective field or medium, a breakthrough that challenges prevailing narratives for explaining the world. Sometimes those breakthroughs are few and far between. For fields marked by rapid change and development, those breakthroughs can occur more frequently. In the rapidly changing field of social media and its impact on society, Chris Bail’s Breaking the Social Media Prism stands to become one of those paradigm shifts."---Austin Gravley, FaithTech"There is something for everyone in this book. . . . Drawing from rich interview data with people who use social media every day, Bail vividly depicts people’s lives and motives that result in political polarization on social media. Through engaging storytelling that puts a human face on political extremists and silent moderates on social media platforms, the book highlights the responsibility and agency of individual users to reduce political polarization on social media. Bail empowers readers and holds them accountable by shining a light on their instincts and motives that contribute to the social media’s prismatic effect."---Elizabeth Baik, New Media & Society"This misperception of reality that we see through the networks is what Bail calls 'prism' in the title of the book. 'The people who exaggerate the extremism of the other side are significantly higher among those who use the networks for information,' he explains. This causes a wrong idea of ​​society for those who are there a lot and for those who use Twitter as an opinion thermometer. 'More pernicious is when the media uses Twitter as a display of public opinion, because it amplifies this misperception.'"---Jordi Pérez Colomé, El País"Shattering popular myths and in the process, uncovering some extraordinary revelations, Chris Bail’s enormously influential book, Breaking the Social Media Prism is a much needed antidote in, and, for bewildering times where fake news proliferates and political polarization runs amok on various social media platforms." * Blogternator *"Innovative. . . .this book will challenge many of your beliefs about the online world including that the solution is to completely disengage. . . . We suggest you read Breaking the Social Media Prism and evaluate your own online behavior and those you bump into." * Purple Principle podcast *"A very thought-provoking book, full of rich empirical evidence, a well-articulated narrative on the social media prism and it introduces potential solutions for the problems it discusses."---Xiuhua Wang, Sociology"Fascinating."---Michael Jensen, Eternity"Terrific book." * Democracy Works podcast *

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Book SynopsisIn You are Not a Gadget digital guru and virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier reveals how the internet is deadening personal interaction, stifling genuine inventiveness and even changing us as people. Something went wrong around the start of the twenty-first century. The crowd was wise. Social networks replaced individual creativity. There were more places to express ourselves than ever before... yet no one really had anything to say. Does this have to be our future? Showing us the way to a future where individuals mean more than machines, this is a searing manifesto against mass mediocrity, a creative call to arms - and an impassioned defence of the human. ''A provocative and sure-to-be-controversial book ... Lucid, powerful and persuasive''  The New York Times ''There is hardly a page that does not contain some fascinating provocation''   Guardian ''Short and frighteniTrade ReviewFabulous - I couldn't put it down and shouted out Yes! Yes! on many pages . . . This is a landmark book that will have people talking and arguing for years into the future. * Lee Smolin *Lucid, powerful and persuasive . . . Necessary reading for anyone interested in how the Web and the software we use every day are reshaping culture and the marketplace * Michiko Kakutani, New York Times *There is hardly a page that does not contain some fascinating provocation * Guardian *Mind-bending, exuberant, brilliant * Washington Post *A pioneer in the development of virtual reality and a Silicon Valley veteran, Mr. Lanier is a digital-world insider concerned with the effect that online collectivism and the current enshrinement of "the wisdom of the crowd" is having on artists, intellectual property rights and the larger social and cultural landscape. In taking on such issues, he's written an illuminating book that is as provocative as it is impassioned. -- Michiko Kakutani's Top 10 Books of the Year 2010 * New York Times *In the world of technologists, Jaron Lanier is that rare combination: a pioneer and a skeptic. A legendary computer scientist, he did crucial early work in the field of virtual reality (the phrase is his). But he now recoils at the way Web 2.0 and social media sell us short as human beings, both in our relationships and in our sense of who we are. In purposeful, reasoned steps, always informed by a profound understanding of how software really works, he lays out his vision of where it all went wrong and champions the power of the human brain in an age of ever smarter machines. -- Lev Grossman * Time Magazine Top 10 Non-Fiction Books of 2010 *

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive overview into digital literary studies that equips readers to navigate the difficult contentions in this space.The Literary Agenda is a series of short polemical monographs about the importance of literature and of reading in the wider world and about the state of literary education inside schools and universities. The category of ''the literary'' has always been contentious. What is clear, however, is how increasingly it is dismissed or is unrecognised as a way of thinking or an arena for thought. It is sceptically challenged from within, for example, by the sometimes rival claims of cultural history, contextualized explanation, or media studies. It is shaken from without by even greater pressures: by economic exigency and the severe social attitudes that can follow from it; by technological change that may leave the traditional forms of serious human communication looking merely antiquated. For just these reasons this is the right time for renewal, to start reinvigorated work into the meaning and value of literary reading.You may have heard of the digital humanities--and what you may have heard may not have been good. Yet like an oncoming storm, the relentless growth of the use of digital methods for the study of literature seems inevitable. This book gives an insight into the ways in which digital approaches can be used to study literature and the ways in which humanistic study can be used to explore digital literature. Examining its subject across the axes of authorship, space, and visualization, maps and place, distance and history, and ethical approaches to the digital humanities, this book introduces newcomers to the topic while also offering plenty for seasoned digital humanities pros. Combining original research with third-party case studies and examples, this book will appeal both to students and researchers across all levels who wish to learn about digital literary studies.Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Authors and Writing 2: Space and Visualization 3: Maps and Place 4: Distance and History 5: Conclusion: Ethical Digitalism Bibliography

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Book SynopsisOur gadgets are getting smarter. Technology can log what we buy, customize what we consume and enable us to save and share every aspect of our existence. In the future, we''re told, it will even make public life - from how we''re governed to how we record crime - better. But can the digital age fix everything? Should it? By quantifying our behaviour, Evgeny Morozov argues, we are profoundly reshaping society - and risk losing the opacity and imperfection that make us human.Trade ReviewIf you've ever had the niggling feeling, as you spoon down your google, that there's no such thing as a free lunch, Morozov's book will tell you how you might end up paying for it -- Brian EnoA clear voice of reason and critical thinking in the middle of today's neomania -- Nassim Taleb, author of 'The Black Swan'

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Book Synopsis“Magisterial…Draws an elegant and illuminating parallel between the late-19th-century electrification of America and today’s computing world.” —SalonTrade Review"Future Shock for the Web-apps era…Compulsively readable—for nontechies, too—as it compellingly weaves together news stories, anecdotes, and data." -- Fast Company"The best read so far about the significance of the shift to cloud computing." -- Financial Times"Mr. Carr’s provocations are destined to influence CEOs and the boards and investors that support them as companies grapple with the constant change of the digital age." -- Wall Street Journal"Exceedingly good." -- TechWorld"The Big Switch is thought-provoking and an enjoyable read, and the history of American electricity that makes up the first half of the book is riveting stuff." -- New York Post"Carr stimulates, provokes and entertains superbly." -- Information Age

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