Quello Che Vuole La Tecnologia (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
Pretty awful. Full of faulty logic, Strawmen, overgeneralizations, and rhetorical questions that just make you want to scream "No, not always!" I liked the chapter on the Amish, that was full of interesting details about that subculture. The chapter on the Unibomber was just plan creepy - despite the author including disclaimer after disclaimer about how he didn't condone anything - it pushed past sympathetic and into paean. He mentions several video games I've enjoyed, specifically Halo, in ways which are simply untrue - basically the equivalent of calling The Godfather a comedic gem. This makes it clear that not only did he never bother spending any significant time playing them, but he never bothered to fact check his references with pretty much any gamer who has. But what does technology want? The concept of The Technium is one I wanted to like...but couldn't get past how baseless it is. It's the biggest false analogy in the book (and there isn't exactly a dearth of candidates). Similarly, the conclusion "technology wants to become useless, it wants to become art" might have even been interesting, had it been argued with any competence. But rational thinking took a left turn somewhere before this one was finished. I'd wager if Kelly hadn't founded Wired, no editor in their right mind would have let half the nonsense in here pass unchallenged. Also, the narration on the audiobook was abysmal. Strange cadences, inflections on unimportant parts of sentences, a tone which was consistently grating. I wouldn't have imagined the reading itself could have such an impact on the enjoyment of nonfiction content...I stand corrected. If Annie Dillard had written the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey, it might have been What Technology Wants. This book is a masterpiece. I couldn't put it down, so I read it twice in a row. Note that it's very "up my alley," so your taste and mileage may vary. Without exactly addressing too much about posthuman ideas, Kelly in some ways goes even wider than the Singularity / Humanity+ authors. In the end he is a cheerleader. But many other authors are cheerleaders from Page 1, and Kelly is far more circumspect about how he gets to his conclusions, the values at play, and the complexity of the tradeoffs.If you're interested in meditations on our future present, I can't think of anything better. From the structure of the first moment of the Big Bang to the fulfillment of the human adventure I've never read a book with a wider scope, or a more detailed, researched, consideration of it.I'll probably read it again in 2014.
What do You think about Quello Che Vuole La Tecnologia (2011)?
Some interesting history of science anecdotes but then gets into new-agey technium nonsense.
—Fatihah
Found the section on how the Amish engage technology fascinating . . .
—ejh1114
Breathless adoration of all things technological? No thanks.
—Ashley
Bad writing and too verbose but still interesting.
—Derp
