When I first laid hands on Stephen Talbott's The Future Does Not Compute, I couldn't wait to read it. The cover looked great. The topic - the future of the information age - timely. And the preface, by the president of respected book publisher O'Reilly and Associates, suggested it would "make people think." Yet, I know exactly the point at which this became unimportant.
Page 17. I got to page 17 during a long flight to Sri Lanka and could scarcely read another word. This book's entire message is, get ready: computers are bad.
The book is a kind of New Age critique of technology, wrapped in a unintentional parody of philosophy/psychology/sociology. A taste of Talbott's excoriating prose: "Most of us currently interact with our computers via a keyboard and mouse. But we could interact by attaching electrodes to our heads and learning to manipulate our own brainwaves."
If you want something to make you think, read Joseph Weizenbaum's Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation. Hell, even an in-flight magazine on Air Lanka is better.
The Future Does Not Compute: Transcending the Machines in Our Midst, by Stephen L. Talbott: US$22.95. O'Reilly and Associates: (800) 998 9938, +1 (707) 829 0515.
STREET CRED
My Creation! It's ... Alive!Post-Pop Life
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