Name: Antoine Pirard's review of World Without Mind by Franklin Foer
Item: World Without Mind
Rating: 3
Author: Antoine Pirard

Franklin Foer

Elegantly tracing the intellectual history of computer science, Foer puts the DNA of the very idea of "tech" under the microscope. Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon, he argues, are breaking laws intended to protect intellectual property and privacy. This is not the path towards freedom and prosperity, but the total automation and homogenization of our social, political, and intellectual lives. Today's corporate giants want access to every facet of our identities and influence over every corner of our lives. Foer both indicts these companies, and shapes a path towards reining them in.

The Existential Threat of Big Tech

World Without Mind

Antoine Pirard

I.m. ruzz

I'm always up for anti-technology books. I'm so fully swallowed by the promise of technology I like to salt my reading diet with some opposing views. Turns out this was more of a personal book than themes type book. The Author has some chips on his shoulder from when his storied role at New Republic ran headlong into a billionaire tech owner. What follows is about what you'd anticipate from a literary sort begrudged. 

Words matter. books matter. ideas matter. stopping to think now and then matters. All true. 

On summary, for me, he didn't quite make his case. It was diluted by his own biases and albeit deserved anger. The vein of "I got rolled over by something much larger than me and it alerted me that there are much larger things than me" didn't sit well with me. Some part of me is always entertained when a lettered type gets there due comeuppance and is forced to square themselves against reality. This was painful for him and it should be. 

That said, there are some good arguments here. Many of which we'd do well to take more seriously than we do. Our lack of seriousness is only overtaken by our misplaced seriousness, it seems. We're serious about all the wrong things, almost always. Such is modern life. Everything is a moving target, isn't it?

If you have strong feelings about deep writing, books, institutions and the supposed bulwark the highly--some might say overly--educated academics provide you might get something out of this. 

If you don't care a whif and are prone to see this sort of thing as the old white guy standing and screaming get off my lawn well, it is that to some extent and you might want to pass.

A timely and powerful must-read on how the big tech companies are damaging our culture – and what we can do to fight their influence Four titanic corporations are now the most powerful gatekeepers the world has ever known. We shop with Amazon, socialise on Facebook, turn to Apple for entertainment, and rely on Google for information. They have conquered our culture and set us on a path to a world without private contemplation or autonomous thought: a world without mind. In this book, Franklin Foer makes a passionate, deeply informed case for the need to restore our inner lives and reclaim our intellectual culture before it is too late. At stake is nothing less than who we are, and what we will become. It is a message that could not be more timely.

Gigi V

Roman Micevic

Daniel Toke Hansen

Katie Chua

Over the past few decades there has been a revolution in terms of who controls knowledge and information. This rapid change has imperilled the way we think. Without pausing to consider the cost, the world has rushed to embrace the products and services of four titanic corporations. We shop with Amazon; socialise on Facebook; turn to Apple for entertainment; and rely on Google for information. These firms sell their efficiency and purport to make the world a better place, but what they have done instead is to enable an intoxicating level of daily convenience. As these companies have expanded, marketing themselves as champions of individuality and pluralism, their algorithms have pressed us into conformity and laid waste to privacy. They have produced an unstable and narrow culture of misinformation, and put us on a path to a world without private contemplation, autonomous thought, or solitary introspection - a world without mind. In order to restore our inner lives, we must avoid being co-opted by these gigantic companies, and understand the ideas that underpin their success. Elegantly tracing the intellectual history of computer science - from the Descartes and the enlightenment to Alan Turing to Stuart Brand and the hippie origins of today's Silicon Valley - Foer exposes the dark underpinnings of our most idealistic dreams for technology. The corporate ambitions of Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon, he argues, are trampling longstanding liberal values, especially intellectual property and privacy. This is a nascent stage in the total automation and homogenization of social, political, and intellectual life. By reclaiming our private authority over how we intellectually engage with the world, we have the power to stem the tide.At stake is nothing less than who we are, and what we will become. There have been monopolists in the past but today?s corporate giants have far more nefarious aims. They?re monopolists who want access to every facet of our identities and influence over every corner of our decision-making. Until now few have grasped the sheer scale of the threat. Foer explains not just the looming existential crisis but the imperative of resistance.

Antoine Pirard &
World Without Mind by Franklin Foer

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Antoine Pirard &World Without Mind by Franklin Foer

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Antoine Pirard &
World Without Mind by Franklin Foer