Books On Societal Effects Of Computers?

Anonymous Coward asks: "I need a book on the effects of computers on society for my computer ethics class... it can be on most any subject (privacy, anonymity, anything really...) preferably something short and not too technical, and needs to be 'controversial'."

The Cult of Information, by Theodore Roszak

[mbg]

An oldie but a goodie.

I read it more than ten years ago, so I can't remember much about it, but I definitely enjoyed it.

Check out Sherry Turkle

[Mike Miller]

Sherry Turkle's books are quite good and while 'nontechnical', they are fairly meaty in the psych area. I'd reccomend "Life on the Screen" as probably the one that you are most interested in and is widely available, but "Second Self" is good as well. I haven't read any of her other books though.

- Mike

Re:Books...

[bertilak]

Net Slaves is by Lessard and Baldwin. You can find multiple sources of this book at http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?author=&title=ne t+slaves&submit=Begin+Search&new_used=*& currency=USD&mode=basic&st=sr&ac=qr

a-z of cyberculture

[gooeykablooie]

You might wanna check out Andrew Calcutt, "White Noise: An A-Z of the Contradictions in Cyberculture" (1999). It talks about trends and paradoxes, e.g the gender tension online, the Bill Gates/anti-Bill Gates sub-culture, democracy vs diversity, etc. Short, but provocative.

The New Renaissance

[stephend]

I got The New Renaissance [amazon.co.uk] by Douglas S. Robertson last year. Quite interesting and controversial (he suggests changing numbers and language so that they are more efficient for computers and people).

It's not exactly a classic, but is well worth a read.

Red Rock Eater, Phil Agre, and David Noble

[SamHill]

A great place to look for information about the interaction between society and technology is Phil Agre's Red Rock Eater List [ucla.edu]. Phil is a professor at UCLA, specializing in the study of the social effects of technology. RRE allows him to share some of the information he comes across -- postings include book lists and excerpts; preprint papers; white papers on technological issues (there's been lots of valuable information on UCITA and ICANN); notes on what he's been reading and thinking about, as well as pointers to cheap pens; conference announcements; and more.

Phil has lots of papers on his personal page [ucla.edu], many of which would satisfy your request. There's also a bibliography of books on the social aspects of computing [ucla.edu], and some excellent resources (highly recommended: Networking on the Network [ucla.edu], How to Help Someone Use a Computer [ucla.edu], and Advice for Undergraduates Considering Graduate School [ucla.edu].

The RRE Web site (notes above) includes some links to book excerpts, including the following:

• Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences by Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star (November 1999).
• The Social Life of Information by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid (February 2000).
• Society on the Line: Information Politics in the Digital Age by William H. Dutton (January 1999).
• Database Nation by Simson Garfinkel (January 2000).
• Telecommunications and the City: Parallel Transformations by Stephen Graham and Simon Marvin (October 1996).
• Net Loss: Government, Technology and the Political Economy of Community in the Age of the Internet by Nathan Newman (July 1999).
• Ben Franklin's Web Site: Privacy and Curiosity from Plymouth Rock to the Internet by Robert Ellis Smith (March 2000).

You'll also find links to David Noble's ``Digital Diploma Mills'' series (on the rise of ``distance learning''), and lots more.

Speaking of David Noble, he also specializes in the study of the social impacts of technology, and one or more of his books might be appropriate for your class (although he's not particularly focused on computing). I first encountered his work as an undergrad in a class called ``Science, Technology, and Society'', which included Noble's America by Design (Knopf, 1977) (about the professionalization of engineering in America). Your best bet would probably be Progress Without People (Between the Lines, 1995).

Donald Norman, although mostly focused on user-centered design of computers and software, also has lots of insights into the ways in which people work with computers. The Design of Everyday Things (Doubleday, 1988; called The Psychology of Everyday Things in hardcover) is a classic; you may be especially interested in Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine (Addison-Wesley, 1993) and The Invisible Computer: Why Good Products Can Fail, the Personal Computer is So Complex, and Information Appliances are the Solution (MIT Press, 1998).

Finally, take a look at Peter G. Neumann's Computer-Related Risks (based on the RISKS Digest) (ACM Press (Addison-Wesley), 1995) and Thomas K. Landauer's The Trouble with Computers: Usefulness, Usability, and Productivity (MIT Press, 1995).

Books...

[Orville]

I know of a few:

"Silicon Snake Oil" by Clifford Stoll is a fairly quick read. (A little dated, though...)

"Net Slaves".. (don't recall the author right offhand) about IT workers and the lives they lead..