rs@mirror.UUCP (05/25/85)
> Now, I have a question for everybody: > If you were designing a course, for technological people, >covering different views of technology and its impact >on society; which books, stories, or music >etc would you include? I admit to being somewhat biased; most of my choices are negative. This is no doubt because most "technological people" I know are pro-tech. With that in mind, I'd recommend: The Machine in the Garden (I forget the author, d--n it) Computer Power and Human Reason, Joseph Weizenbaum yeah, it's got problems, and his "me alone against all my former colleagues" whining gets tiresome, but his basic question -- are there things we should not try to "computerize" -- is a critical one. Mechanization Takes Command, Siegfried Giedion an attempt to study the effects of mechanization the loss of artisanry, how it "contributes to the split between thought and feeling" The Second Self, Sherry Turkle how computers change individuals, from little kids who become more self-confident, to the stereotyped mit/berkeley/stanford hacker "Welcome to the machine," the song by Pink Floyd. There are lots of others, but this is net.books; contact me if you're interested in more. "What's the Matter with Plastic Trees," Martin Kreiger, _Science_ (1982?) and "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" Walter Benjamin, an essay I've a copy of but lost the original citation. What does "art" and "original art" mean in the age of technologic, mass-reproduction. Steal this Book, Abbie Hoffman (in reprint from his brother) How one person used technology against its "creators" (e.g., guerilla radio stations) enjoy, -------- Rich $alz { mit-eddie, ihnp4!inmet, wjh12, cca, datacube } ! mirror!rs Mirror Systems 2067 Massachusetts Ave. "I've seen this happen Cambridge, MA, 02140 in other people's lives 617-661-0777 and now it's happening in mine."
marek@iuvax.UUCP (06/28/85)
Excellent treatments of technology as such, with an admittedly Occidental bias:
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"The Cyberiad", "Mortal Engines", "The Invincible", "A Perfect Vaccum",
"Summa Technologiae" (learn Polish, German, or help translate the thing!),
"Dialogi" (ditto!), "Return from the Stars", "Tales of Pirx the Pilot",
"Eden" -- all by Stanislaw Lem, the Next Polish Nobelist in Literature...
"The Word for the World is 'Forest'" Ursula K. LeGuin
"The Republic" Plato
"Persistence of Vision" John Varley
"Doorways in the Sand" Roger Zelazny
"Avatar" Poul Anderson
"Metaphors We Live By" George Lakoff and Mark Johnson
"The Mind's I" Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennet, editors
"The Tao Is Silent" Raymond Smullyan
"White Smoke Bellew and Other Tales" Jack London
...that ought to fill up a semester even at Wisconsin (or Indiana)!
-- Marek Lugowski
marek@indiana.csnet