The Internet is not what you think it is : a history, a philosophy, a warning / by Justin E. H Smith.

By:

Smith, Justin E. H [author]

Material type:

Computer fileLanguage: English Publication details: Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, 2022Description: 1 online resource (208, pages) : color illustrationsContent type:

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

9780691212326 (e-book)

Subject(s):

LOC classification:

ZA4201 S65 Sm5 2022

Online resources:

Contents:

I. Introduction: “Let us calculate!” -- 2. A sudden acceleration -- 2. The ecology of the internet -- 3. The reckoning engine and the thinking machine -- 4. "How closely woven the web": the internet as loom -- 5. A window on the world

Summary: Many think of the internet as an unprecedented and overwhelmingly positive achievement of modern human technology. But is it? In The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is, Justin Smith offers an original deep history of the internet, from the ancient to the modern world—uncovering its surprising origins in nature and centuries-old dreams of radically improving human life by outsourcing thinking to machines and communicating across vast distances. Yet, despite the internet’s continuing potential, Smith argues, the utopian hopes behind it have finally died today, killed by the harsh realities of social media, the global information economy, and the attention-destroying nature of networked technology. Ranging over centuries of the history and philosophy of science and technology, Smith shows how the “internet” has been with us much longer than we usually think. He draws fascinating connections between internet user experience, artificial intelligence, the invention of the printing press, communication between trees, and the origins of computing in the machine-driven looms of the silk industry. At the same time, he reveals how the internet’s organic structure and development root it in the natural world in unexpected ways that challenge efforts to draw an easy line between technology and nature. Combining the sweep of intellectual history with the incisiveness of philosophy, The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is cuts through our daily digital lives to give a clear-sighted picture of what the internet is, where it came from, and where it might be taking us in the coming decades.

List(s) this item appears in: NEW Online E-Books 2023

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Holdings ( 2 )
Title notes ( 5 )

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Call number	Materials specified	Status	Notes	Date due	Barcode
Compact Discs	Ladislao N. Diwa Memorial Library Multimedia Section	Non-fiction	EB ZA4201.S65 Sm5 2022 (Browse shelf(Opens below))		Not for loan	PAV		EB000382
Online E-Books	Ladislao N. Diwa Memorial Library Multimedia Section	Non-fiction	OEBP ZA4201.S65 Sm5 2022 (Browse shelf(Opens below))		Available	PAV		OEBP000382

https://portal.igpublish.com/iglibrary/ is required to read this e-book.

Includes bibliographical references and index

Many think of the internet as an unprecedented and overwhelmingly positive achievement of modern human technology. But is it? In The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is, Justin Smith offers an original deep history of the internet, from the ancient to the modern world—uncovering its surprising origins in nature and centuries-old dreams of radically improving human life by outsourcing thinking to machines and communicating across vast distances. Yet, despite the internet’s continuing potential, Smith argues, the utopian hopes behind it have finally died today, killed by the harsh realities of social media, the global information economy, and the attention-destroying nature of networked technology.

Ranging over centuries of the history and philosophy of science and technology, Smith shows how the “internet” has been with us much longer than we usually think. He draws fascinating connections between internet user experience, artificial intelligence, the invention of the printing press, communication between trees, and the origins of computing in the machine-driven looms of the silk industry. At the same time, he reveals how the internet’s organic structure and development root it in the natural world in unexpected ways that challenge efforts to draw an easy line between technology and nature.

Combining the sweep of intellectual history with the incisiveness of philosophy, The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is cuts through our daily digital lives to give a clear-sighted picture of what the internet is, where it came from, and where it might be taking us in the coming decades.

Fund 164 CE-Logic Purchased November 9, 2022 OEBP000382 P. Roderno PHP 5,489.10
2022-11-1010 2022-9-1288