Book cover of Meganets

Book description

How the autonomous digital forces jolting our lives - as uncontrollable as the weather and plate tectonics - are transforming life, society, culture, and politics.

David Auerbach's exploration of the phenomenon he has identified as the meganet begins with a simple, startling revelation: There is no hand on the tiller…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Meganets as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I was impressed by the way author Auerbach distills what has changed in our relationship with the internet over the past 20 years: there has been a gradual but momentous shift from “search” on the web” to “recommendations” offered by the web. Initially, we searched for what we were interested in–but now, networks tell us what we are interested in!

Auerbach defines the meganet as that “new creature…born [to] manage the data boom and absorb, filter, and recommend it,” and I was sobered by his graphic warning of the dangers that emerge from “off-loading our decision-making” to the internet.

From Michael's list on feed your internet paranoia.

If you love Meganets...

Book cover of These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

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