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    The Glass Cage: Automation and Us
    The Glass Cage: Automation and Us
    The Glass Cage: Automation and Us
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Glass Cage: Automation and Us

    Written by Nicholas Carr

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    At once a celebration of technology and a warning about its misuse, The Glass Cage will change the way you think about the tools you use every day.

    In The Glass Cage, bestselling author Nicholas Carr digs behind the headlines about factory robots and self-driving cars, wearable computers and digitized medicine, as he explores the hidden costs of granting software dominion over our work and our leisure. Even as they bring ease to our lives, these programs are stealing something essential from us.

    Drawing on psychological and neurological studies that underscore how tightly people’s happiness and satisfaction are tied to performing hard work in the real world, Carr reveals something we already suspect: shifting our attention to computer screens can leave us disengaged and discontented.

    From nineteenth-century textile mills to the cockpits of modern jets, from the frozen hunting grounds of Inuit tribes to the sterile landscapes of GPS maps, The Glass Cage explores the impact of automation from a deeply human perspective, examining the personal as well as the economic consequences of our growing dependence on computers.

    With a characteristic blend of history and philosophy, poetry and science, Carr takes us on a journey from the work and early theory of Adam Smith and Alfred North Whitehead to the latest research into human attention, memory, and happiness, culminating in a moving meditation on how we can use technology to expand the human experience.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateSep 29, 2014
    ISBN9781469292014
    The Glass Cage: Automation and Us
    Author

    Nicholas Carr

    Nicholas Carr is the author of The Shallows, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, as well as The Big Switch and Does IT Matter? His articles and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Wired, and the New Republic, and he writes the widely read blog Rough Type. He has been writer-in-residence at the University of California, Berkeley, and an executive editor of the Harvard Business Review.

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    Reviews for The Glass Cage

    4/5

    75 ratings9 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A super interesting view and exciting look into automation and the technologies of today!
    • 4/5
      In which Mr. Carr reminds us to look at what we pick up before we use it.
    • 5/5
      A moving, lyrical and rather beautiful meditation on the future of automation and the future of humanity. Nicholas Carr has some serious points to make about how automation, efficient and superficially advantageous as it is, can not only diminish our skills but our fundamental abilities and ultimately our sense of worth. This is not some anti-diluvian, Luddite tract (although Carr has a lot of respect for the Luddites) rather a plea for the human not to be removed entirely from the machine and the algorhthym. Carr has some frankly frightening examples from the world of aviation of how pilots now have so little flying to do (often less than 5 minutes per flight) that they are paying less attention and risk losing their skills. He is surely right when he points out that habitual use of GPS and digital maps changes the way we interact with our environment, reducing the world between our front door and our "destination" to meaningless public space. It can never again really be about "the journey". He is right that our mobile devices, constantly demanding our attention with their pings and beeps, prevent us from attaining immersion or flow in any activity. In short, we need human centric innovation and automationVery well worth reading
    • 4/5
      The author looks at the role of automation in our world, and how it is changing the condition of being human. Some ways might be for the better, he argues, but in all, we are ceding a lot to machines that humans are actually better at, and we are losing vital skills. In addition, it may not always be the best choice to have super fast, super efficient decision making, and he discusses the situations where that might not be as desirable as we think. The final chapter deals with the issue of morals, and how we build in algorithms to help automatons make moral decisions without having an active conscience. Well written, cogent, and well researched. One of my main complaints is that the book acts as though there is nothing that could change the forward progress of technology, that could knock out the systems, and leave us facing a less technological future without the skills we need to do it, even though there are several feasible scenarios by which that could happen, either temporarily or permanently. Other than that, a must read for educators, CEOs, and anyone else who lives and breathes in the world.
    • 4/5
      Another great book treating about next intelligence ! A kind of smart alchemy coming from pure robot and Google trans-humanism project ... Well - useless to say that this is actually the next jump to pure automation world !Thanks Nicholas for giving us highlights of what could be the new paradigm of knowledge and therefore the potential to add it into our life ;() Dec, 24th - 2015
    • 3/5
      Did you know that automation makes us dumber? We use search engines and autopilots and other machines instead of learning for ourselves, or practicing skills like flying by hand that deteriorate quickly. Automation may also lead to fewer jobs, though that is hotly contested and unclear. Carr raises important concerns—humans may be quite unsuited to the “monitor and jump in to react when something that doesn’t fit into the programming occurs” role, an argument he supports well with respect to flying and driving—but it’s coupled with really unpersuasive claims about the inadequacy of the digital. For example, he quotes architects who claim that architects will never have the same emotional connection, vital to art, with buildings designed on CAD systems rather than drawn on paper. I believe that architects who learned to draw on paper may never be able to fully integrate CAD systems into their processes, but humans are emotion-making dynamos, and I fully expect architects who grow up with CAD systems to cathect without difficulty. Near the end we get a bit of “the solution to the machine is in the machine,” with better-designed programs that force humans out of the ill-suited monitor role and into more participatory roles, and design programs that work more organically, but I was expecting a bit more about simulation. As I understand it, one of the big things simulations can do is give pilots practice—yes, the skies are too crowded for a lot of flying by hand, but you can keep skills from deteriorating by practice in simulators. Also, yes, I’m sure GPS causes deterioration in many people’s navigation skills, but I never had those skills, so it’s only a benefit for me—something he spends a little but not much time acknowledging.
    • 3/5
      I read THE GLASS CAGE by Nicholas Carr because I loved his THE BIG SWITCH. But I can't say that about the GLASS CAGE which was disappointing to me. Carr goes through the impact of technology on various part of our lives such as medicine, airlines, wearable computers, robots but he never captured me. He shared more than I cared to know. Nonetheless, the book is well written and if you are into tech you will like it.
    • 3/5
      It is good that someone is emphasizing the drawbacks and dangers of increasing auomation (stop thinking for ourselves, do not learn, do not challenge ourselves, leave power in the hands of others), however Carr's book is too one-sided to be convincing. That is a pity, since the anecdotes and research that he presents are often thought provoking and potentially important.
    • 5/5
      The Glass Cage Automation and UsBy: Nicholas Carr Philosophy/SocietyNorton & Company, Inc. 2014. Pages. 232 Copy Courtesy of Goodreads First ReadsReviewed by: tkEye opening, thought provoking, superbly written from beginning to end.Nicholas Carr introduces the ideals of automation in a extraordinary collection of detail, explanation, and examples of how our daily lives are being manipulated by machines.I am not saying that is his intent. I am saying is that his compiled information in simple language for a lay person as myself, was absolutely terrifying.Carr looks at the effects and outcomes of our daily decisions, and how we come to those decisions could possibly be not entirely our own. Most every household has a computer, or two. Ipods, Ipads, phones, tablets, gaming, the list goes on and on. How are these items controlling us? I interact with electronic devises daily, and I bet you do also. I wonder who is collecting the data that I am receiving and sending. I wonder if I should be concerned if anything information is being misinterpreted, or misrepresented in any way.The accumulation of facts that Carr has complied is over whelming. A simple quote, “Sharp tools dull minds”. Consider the implication of just a quote. I remember what it was like before all these tools came into play. No microwaves, cell phones, computers, and what not. I fell life was simple, and full. Now…is it to easy, convenient, needed to complete ourselves as part of society, or are we becoming puppets on a string. A MUST READ. You will have to decide for yourselves. I think this book should be required reading for everyone. This book is a tool, although not electronic unless your reading on an e-reader. I sincerely feel that even though some of the ideals are thought about, you never look outside of the box, to see what we are becoming, or where we are headed. The definition of ourselves are being diminished by the automation that we use. Please for you, your children, and your friends, read this book. Just be aware so your not totally in shocked into oblivion. Highly recommended. 5/5