Question Technology

Lee Siegel's Against the Machine

Critic Lee Siegel has a new book out later in January called Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob.  From the publisher's description:

[...] a ruthless challenge to the conventional wisdom about the most consequential cultural development of our time: the Internet.

Of course the Internet is not one thing or another; if anything, its boosters claim, the Web is everything at once. It’s become not only our primary medium for communication and information but also the place we go to shop, to play, to debate, to find love. Lee Siegel argues that our ever-deepening immersion in life online doesn’t just reshape the ordinary rhythms of our days; it also reshapes our minds and culture, in ways with which we haven’t yet reckoned. The web and its cultural correlatives and by-products—such as the dominance of reality television and the rise of the “bourgeois bohemian”—have turned privacy into performance, play into commerce, and confused “self-expression” with art. And even as technology gurus ply their trade using the language of freedom and democracy, we cede more and more control of our freedom and individuality to the needs of the machine—that confluence of business and technology whose boundaries now stretch to encompass almost all human activity.

Siegel’s argument isn’t a Luddite intervention against the Internet itself but rather a bracing appeal for us to contend with how it is transforming us all. Dazzlingly erudite, full of startlingly original insights, and buoyed by sharp wit, Against the Machine will force you to see our culture—for better and worse—in an entirely new way.

Amy Borkowsky's "Cellibacy" Project

Comedian Amy Borkowsky is giving up her cell phone for 60 days, starting January first, and writing about it at her web site.  From the intro:

On January 1st, Borkowsky will attempt to ring in 2008 with a lot less ringing, as she officially turns off her cell phone service for sixty days, becoming America’s first advocate for moderation in cell phone use. [...]

“I’m doing this because I really question how being so dependent on my cell phone is affecting my quality of life.”

Like a lot of people, she wonders how it evolved from a smart thing to have in an emergency to something convenient for outgoing calls but not essential, to such a constant attachment to her ear that “my face practically has a tan line in the shape of the VX8300.”

Link: Cellibacy, via textually.org.

Top 10 privacy threats of 2007 (Slate)

William Saletan at Slate lists his Top science-and-technology privacy threats of 2007.  A few (numbers 2, 3, and 4: the wars on smoking, trans-fats, and salt) seem like a bit of a stretch.

New Money behind Immortality Enthusiasts

Conde Nast Portfolio has an article profiling Ray Kurzweil, Aubrey de Grey, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Thiel, and some other rich people who -- surprise! -- want to live forever.  From the blurb:

The search for immortality—or at least the exponential extension of human life—is hardly new. But now the hedge fund set has joined the quest, and some big money and names are betting on a "cure" for aging.

Link: Never Say Die,

via Singularity Institute Blog.

Texting while driving kills

From the Boston Globe:

The man accused of killing a 13-year-old boy in a hit-and-run in Taunton told police he was behind the wheel typing a text message on his cellphone when he lost control of the sport utility vehicle and hit what he thought was a mailbox, a prosecutor said today in court.

Craig P. Bigos, 31, told investigators that he did not realize the SUV had struck the boy on the bicycle until he drove back down Poole Street hours later on his way to work at a restaurant, said Bristol County prosecutor Aaron T. Strojny.

Link: Man texting while driving when he hit Taunton teen with SUV, prosecutor says

via Engadget.

Techno Tuesday by Andy Rementer

www.technotuesday.com

Forstalling the New Eugenics

Richard Hayes of the Center for Genetics and Society reviews two new pro-human-enhancement books, Babies by Design: The Ethics of Genetic Choice by Ronald Green and Enhancing Evolution: The Ethical Case for Making Better People by John Harris.  It's worth reading the article in full.  From his conclusion:

If we are to forestall a descent into a techno-eugenic human future of the sort that so captivates Green, Harris and their colleagues, we need to declare and build support for a compelling, majoritarian position on the new human biotechnologies. We will need a bipartisan initiative bringing together influential social and political leaders, enlightened secular and religious conservatives, the morally serious communitarian Left, religious leaders from many faiths rooted in the great traditions of moral inquiry, scientists who appreciate the wider societal context of their work, and biotech industry leaders who understand where markets have their place and where they don’t. We will need regulations, laws and treaties at domestic and international levels that preclude dangerous applications of the new human biotechnologies in order that the many benign and beneficent applications can be developed in good faith and full confidence. It is difficult to imagine a greater or more urgent challenge.

Link: Self-Made Man (The American Interest)

How to Discard Old Electronics

So you got a new iPod, TV, DVD player, stereo, etc. for Christmas.  We all know you can't just dump the old ones in the trash -- you need to take them to an e-waste recycling service instead.  But not all electronics recyclers are equal.  Some simply export your waste to developing countries where it is disassembled or burned in unsafe conditions.

Some things you can do:

• Read the Consumer's Guide to Electronics Recycling from the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and find a responsible recycler near you.
• Watch the free trailer for the documentary The Digital Dump: Exporting Re-Use and Abuse to Africa from the Basel Action Network.  I had the privilege of seeing a screening of this film at my workplace recently.  If you work in the electronics industry (or even if you don't), encourage your employer to host a screening to raise awareness.
• Support the Electronics TakeBack Coalition in their efforts to encourage makers of electronics to take back old products for safe recycling or disposal.

Photo: Electronics waste in Lagos, Nigeria © Basel Action Network 2006.

Sickened Residents Force Closing of Mobile Operator's Antenna

From HDR Japan:

NTT DoCoMo Kansai, Inc. has decided to remove an antenna base station for mobile phones after local residents complained of health problems that they claim are attributable to the electromagnetic waves emitted from the station.

[...] residents near the area started to suffer from health problems such as headaches, ear ringing and a rise in blood pressure and blood sugar levels after the antenna base station came into operation.

Link: Pressure from sickened residents forces mobile operator to tear down base antenna,

Via textually.org.

Union of Concerned Scientists on Nuclear Power

The Union of Concerned Scientists recently released a report on the risks from new nuclear power plants.  From the press release:

An expansion of nuclear power capacity in the United States could help reduce global warming pollution, but could also increase threats to public safety and national security, according to a report released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Those risks include a massive radiation release from a power plant meltdown or terrorist attack, and the death of hundreds of thousands from the detonation of a nuclear weapon made with materials obtained from civilian nuclear facilities. (The report is available at www.ucsusa.org/nuclearandclimate.)

"Unless the industry, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the federal government adopt the common-sense recommendations in our report, building a new fleet of nuclear power plants will create serious safety and security risks," said Dr. Lisbeth Gronlund, co-director of UCS's Global Security Program and a report co-author.

Link: Serious safety and security risks undercut nuclear power's role in minimizing global warming, new report finds (December 11, 2007).

Knol Predictions

1. Google will change the name, probably before it even launches.  Not just because it's an ugly word.  Google should have learned with Froogle that puns don't translate and that you don't make up new words if you want to keep brand loyalty.  (Froogle became Google Product Search, which became Google Shopping). They'll end up calling this something simple.  My guesses:

• Google Encyclopedia (in your face, Wikipedians)
• Google Library (in your face, librarians; perhaps too similar to Google Books)
• Google Answers (taken?)
• Google Articles (more likely)
• Google Reference (most likely)
• Google Homework (isn't that what this is for, anyway?)

2. Google won't attract real experts unless they pay real money.  Andrew Keen is swooning over knol because Google promises to pay the authors.  But ad revenue won't be real money unless you write one of the few most popular articles -- and subsequently spend much of your time responding to comments and keeping it up to date.  Who but family (is it coincidence that their sample author shares a last name with their lead engineer?) or those truly hard up for cash (bloggers and journalists probably aren't expert enough to qualify) will go for this?  If a subject expert wants to earn some cash they'll write a magazine article.  If they want prestige and publicity or to summarize knowledge in their field they'll write a survey article for a journal.

Google's Privacy Primers

From the Official Google Blog today:

In order to give you the best possible information about the privacy settings for our products, we asked the engineers and product managers who actually designed them to explain how they work in a series of new videos we released today on our YouTube Privacy Channel. These videos feature Googlers sharing privacy tips, like how to use Google Chat’s “Off the Record” feature, how to limit the number of people who can view your Picasa photos, how to unlist your phone number from Google search results, and how to make the details of your Google Calendar entries private.

Just as we’re dedicated to innovation when it comes to making better, more useful products, we’re also committed to finding new ways to educate you about how to control what information you share when using our products, and with whom. This series, along with the other videos on our YouTube Privacy Channel, are part of this awareness-raising effort. So watch the videos (including our very own blooper reel) and tell us what you think.

Link: New privacy tips series.

Hey Google, if you need to give instructions on how to opt out then you're making it too hard to opt out.  If instructions are needed, then make them findable from the Google front page instead of dumping them on some YouTube page nobody's ever heard of, or will ever remember.

Update: According to Lifehacker there has been a petition kicking around since October 2006 for a Google Data Privacy Manager.  So far it has collected a whopping 195 signatures.  Yikes.  Perhaps hosting an anti-Google petition on a Google service (Google Pages) is a bad idea.

Techno Tuesday by Andy Rementer

www.technotuesday.com

A Canadian Nuclear Gamble

Canada recently restarted a nuclear reactor in Chalk River, Ontario, against the wishes of its nuclear safety watchdog.  New Scientist's Short Sharp Science blog calls it "a terrible, dangerous precedent."  Read more here: Ignoring your nuclear watchdog: a dangerous precedent? (New Scientist blog).

Other stories on this: Globe & Mail (December 16), Macleans (December 12).

Christina Nehring on What's Wrong with the American Essay

I liked this essay about essays.  Christina Nehring explains why nobody reads those "best American Essay" collections.  Excerpt:

If the genre is neglected in our day it is first and foremost because its authors have lost their nerve. It is because essayists—and their editors, their anthologists and the taste-makers on whom they depend—have lost the courage to address large subjects in a large way.

“The essayist is at his most profound when his intentions are most modest,” declares Joseph Epstein, the editor of “The Norton Book of Personal Essays” and the author of nearly two dozen books of autobiographical essays. The essay is a “miniaturist” genre, intones another anthologist; it is “in love with littleness.” Sound ingratiating? Sweet? Self-deprecating? It is. But it is also—as anyone who has spent time with these volumes knows—eye-crossingly dull. The essay that is considered “literature” in our day is not an ambitious or impassioned (if sometimes foolhardy) analysis of human nature. It is not an argument, or a polemic. It is not a gun-blazing attack on a social trend, a film, a book, or a library of books. Those sorts of pieces, sniff the anthologists, are mere journalism.

The essay they prefer has a distinctive tone, which Epstein has called “middle-aged.” I’m not an age-essentialist, but Epstein is, and what he means by “middle-aged” is clearly quiet. Slow-moving. Soft-hitting. Nostalgic. Self-satisfied. It’s the tone he perfects in his signature essay, “The Art of the Nap.” The tone Louis Menand espouses when he states—in the introduction to the 2004 BAE—that his preferred nonfiction “is the one that makes a lost time present.” The tone other BAE writers use when they reminisce rather aimlessly about their trout-fishing expeditions as a child; the drugstore on their block; the New Year’s party they spent watching television with extended family. “It’s only 11 o’clock,” Alan Lightman informs us in the keynote essay of the 2000 BAE, “but I am a morning person and I am already tired. I nod and sink into a chair. To wake myself up, I drink some tart apple cider. ...” Hundreds of words later Mr. Lightman is still “half-sleeping against a wall”—and so are his readers.

Link: Christina Nehring on What's Wrong with the American Essay (Truthdig).

(via Arts & Letters Daily)