Also came across this new book entitled Blown to Bits that some of you may already be familiar with, if so I would be interested in your comments. Likewise Prof. Cohen I would be very interested in your thoughts. Is it a little bit of hyperbole on the part of the authors or are they on the right path?
Alan
Start of the media blurb for the book -
This sounds very familiar to some of the issues we have discussed in class.
Wherever you go…whatever you say, write, photograph, or buy…whatever prescriptions you take, or ATM withdrawals you make…you are generating information. That information can be captured, digitized, retrieved, and copied –anywhere on Earth, instantly. Sophisticated computers can increasingly uncover meaning in those digital traces–understanding, anticipating, and influencingyou as never before.
Is this utopia? Or the dawning of a 1984/Brave New World horror world? Whatever you call it, it’s happening. What kind of world are we creating? What will it be like to live there? Blown to Bits offers powerful and controversial answers to these questions–and give you the knowledge you need to help shape your own digital future, not let others do it for you. Building on their pioneering joint MIT/Harvard course, the authors reveal how the digital revolution is changing everything, in ways that are stunning even the most informed experts
