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The Glass Cage: Automation and Us Audiobook
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Publisher Description
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.
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“Narrator Jeff Cummings has a pleasant and approachable voice, with an energetic and well-paced delivery. His vocal variation and use of different voices for different speakers referenced by the author help to maintain listener interest as he describes the pros and cons of technology in different facets of our lives—from aviation to medicine. He also discusses questions of morality and the implications of programming machines to make the kinds of moral decisions so difficult for human beings themselves.”
— AudioFile
Quotes
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“Nicholas Carr is among the most lucid, thoughtful, and necessary thinkers alive. He’s also terrific company. The Glass Cage should be required reading for everyone with a phone.”
— Jonathan Safran Foer, New York Times bestselling author -
“Most of us, myself included, are too busy tweeting to notice our march into technological dehumanization. Nicholas Carr applies the breaks for us (and our self-driving cars). Smart and concise, this book will change the way you think about the growing automation of our lives.”
— Gary Shteyngart, New York Times bestselling author -
“Helps us appreciate why so-called gains of ‘superior results’ can come with a steep price of hard-to-see tradeoffs that are no less potent for being subtle and nuanced.”
— Forbes -
“The Glass Cage is a worthy antidote to the relentlessly hopeful futurism of Google, TED Talks, and Walt Disney…The same way no popular conversation on cloning can be had without bringing to mind Michael Crichton’s techno-jeremiad Jurassic Park, Carr’s book is positioned to stake out similar ground: to suggest moral restraint on future development with a well-timed and well-placed ‘what if?’”
— Chicago Tribune -
“A sobering new analysis of the hazards of intelligent technology.”
— Boston Globe -
“[A] deeply informed reflection on computer automation.”
— San Francisco Chronicle -
“A stimulating, absorbing read.”
— Associated Press -
“Smart, insightful…paint[s] a portrait of a world readily handing itself over to intelligent devices.”
— Christian Science Monitor -
“Carr…looks at the perils of automation and argues that the added convenience provided by mechanization and computerization comes at the risk of weakening our mental and physical dexterity…A must-read for software engineers and technology experts in all corners of industry as well as everyone who finds himself or herself increasingly dependent on and addicted to gadgets.”
— Booklist (starred review) -
“Engaging, informative, and elicits much needed reflection on the philosophical and ethical implications of over-reliance on automation. Carr deftly incorporates hard research and historical developments with philosophy and prose to depict how technology is changing the way we live our lives and the world we find ourselves in.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“Nick Carr is our most informed, intelligent critic of technology. Since we are going to automate everything, Carr persuades us that we should do it wisely—with mindful automation. Carr’s human-centric technological future is one you might actually want to live in.”
— Kevin Kelly, senior maverick for Wired magazine and author of What Technology Wants
Awards
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A Telegraph (London) Best Books of 2015 Selection
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About Nicholas Carr
Nicholas Carr is the author of The Shallows, The Big Switch, and Does IT Matter? He has written for the New York Times, Atlantic, Guardian, Wired, and other periodicals. He lives in Colorado with his wife.
About Jeff Cummings
Jeff Cummings, as an audiobook narrator, has won both an Earphones Award and the prestigious Audie Award in 2015 for Best Narration in Science and Technology. He is also a twenty-year veteran of the stage, having worked at many regional theaters across the country, from A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle and the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta to the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City and the International Mystery Writers’ Festival in Owensboro, Kentucky. He also spent seven seasons with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.