John Zerzan, Alice Carnes (eds.): Questioning Technology: Tool, Toy or Tyrant? (1991)
Filed under book | Tags: · artificial intelligence, communication technology, computing, critique, history of technology, marxism, silicon valley, technology
“The rich array of commentators in this anthology looks at the way technology is waven into the fabric of our lives, and asks: is this what we really want? Questioning Technology is sharp, eloquent, and provocative.
Some of the writers fully intend to shake us up. Russell Means’ essay “Fighting Words on the Future of the Earth” is an inspired case in point. Some suggest solutions: Carolyn Merchant’s “Death of Nature” advocates a restructuring of our priorities in favor of decentralization, “soft” and labor-intensive technologies, and simpler lifestyles. All the contributors face the consequences of our technology-dependency unflichingly and often wittily.
Questioning Technology is an impassioned plea for us to think before we act – and to know that we can, if we want to, ‘unplug ourselves.'”
Publisher New Society Publishers, Philadelphia, PA, Santa Cruz, CA, and Gabriola Island, BC, 1991
ISBN 0865712042, 9780865712041
222 pages
PDF (no OCR; updated on 2012-8-4)
Comment (0)The Bitcoin Sun, No. 1-4 (2011)
Filed under e-zine | Tags: · bitcoin, business, computing, cryptography, decentralization, economy, electronic money, entrepreneurship, free software, internet, money, p2p, software, technology
The Bitcoin Sun: The Rise of Namecoin
Edition 4, 6 June 2011
Includes story about Namecoin project, and interview with Rick Falkvinge, the founder of the Swedish Pirate Party.
PDF (cost: 0.02 BTC)
The Bitcoin Sun: Bitcoin and the Faceless Entrepreneur
Edition 3, 29 May 2011
The Bitcoin Sun: The Low Over-Head Revolution
Edition 2, 23 May 2011
Includes feature article by Kevin Carson.
The Bitcoin Sun: From Alice to Bob
Edition 1, 15 May 2011
David M. Berry: The Philosophy of Software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age (2011)
Filed under book | Tags: · code, computation, computing, philosophy, software, software studies
The Philosophy of Software is a critical introduction to the subject of code and software, and develops an understanding of its social and philosophical implications in the digital age. The book has been written specifically for people interested in the subject from a non-technical background and provides a lively and interesting analysis of these new media forms. Software is a tangle, a knot, which ties together the physical and the ephemeral, the material and the ethereal, into a complete system that can be controlled and directed. However, software exceeds our ability to place limits on its entanglement, for it has in the past decade entered the everyday home through electronic augmentation that has replaced the mechanical world of the twentieth century. From washing machines to central heating systems, children’s toys to television and video; the old electro-magnetic and servo-mechanical world is being revolutionised by the silent logic of virtual devices. It is time, therefore, to examine our virtual situation.
Publisher Palgrave Macmillan Limited, 2011
ISBN 0230244181, 9780230244184
200 pages
PDF (updated on 2012-8-3)
Comment (0)