The Glass Cage: Automation and Us

Carr's previous book, The Shallows, challenged and subsequently shaped some of my fundamental views on the very concept of technology - led alone the Internet and it's cognitive affects on human beings. In The Glass Cage I found myself critiquing and thinking deeply about my digital world once more. Automation is a seemingly invisible beast in 2015 - ubiquitous and unnoticed. However Carr, as he does best, breaks down a multitude of seemingly obvious misconceptions about machines replacing the human work force and the ideas around humans extracting value out of simply working (and what happens to us when we're reduced to observers) to present us with a challenge: “Technology has always challenged people to think about what's important in their lives, to ask themselves...what human being means...we can allow ourselves to be carried along by the technological current, wherever it may be taking us, or we can push against it. To resist invention isn't to reject invention. It's to humble invention, to bring progress down down to earth” Once again, I find myself looking at our current world and wondering whether or not we still have dominion over our machines, our social networks - even over our digitally-induced relationships. If you find yourself in a similar situation, then this book is for you.