Only at OR Books: Program or Be Programmed by Douglas Rushkoff
Only at WWW.ORBOOKS.COM The debate over whether the Net is good or bad for us fills the airwaves and the blogosphere. But for all the heat of claim and counter-claim, the argument is essentially beside the point: it’s here; it’s everywhere. The real question is, do we direct technology, or do we let ourselves be directed by it and those who have mastered it? “Choose the former,” writes Rushkoff, “and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter, and it could be the last real choice you get to make.” In ten chapters, composed of ten “commands” accompanied by original illustrations from comic artist Leland Purvis, Rushkoff provides cyberenthusiasts and technophobes alike with the guidelines to navigate this new universe. In this spirited, accessible poetics of new media, Rushkoff picks up where Marshall McLuhan left off, helping readers come to recognize programming as the new literacy of the digital age—-and as a template through which to see beyond social conventions and power structures that have vexed us for centuries. This is a friendly little book with a big and actionable message. World-renowned media theorist and counterculture figure Douglas Rushkoff is the originator of ideas such as “viral media,” “social currency” and “screenagers.” He has been at the forefront of digital society from its beginning, correctly predicting the rise of the net, the dotcom boom and bust, as well as the current financial crisis. He is a familiar voice on …
Video Rating: 4 / 5
@EarthRimRoamer21 … space outside the interference of various institutions. It gives us the oppurtunity to fight back against corporate and government power but we all need to participate in it in order for it to work. Read his book, he persuasively argues why one ought to learn about programming; or at least learn that there is such a thing as programming while uncovering the many biases of digital technologies.
@EarthRimRoamer21 Social networking sites like Facebook lend power back to the entreprises that dominated TV for the past half-century. Take what is happening with Julian Assange and Wikileaks for example: though they have democratized the journalistic landscape that once belonged to print media, the U.S government and conglomerates like Amazon and Paypal are seeking to pull the plug on it. Programming is a useful skill that enables the ordinary man to participate in a peer-to-peer public…
What does Facebook’s aim of making money off people’s relationships have to do with programming? You don’t have to know how to build a computer or write a program to notice that! For the average person, learning programming would be a wasted effort. It wouldn’t be worth the time and money it took to learn it. It’s just not something you need to know.
… “central nervous system,” and, instead, makes us more malleable to marketers and those attempting to monitor, analyse, dissect our moment-to-moment behaviors so as to not only understand us but manipulate us as well. If we do not understand what the technology is for, we are the used instead of users– that is, we become programmed automatons instead of free agents collectively pursuing the better good for ourselves and the rest of humanity.
… radio. Both of which are top-down, centalized forms of communication controlled by society’s elite. The internet, however, is a bottom-up, decentralized, distributive, interactive, two-way medium that challenges the top-down approach to sharing information. The only problem, as Douglas Rushoff notes, is that this bottom-up technology is becoming centralized and manipulated by cyber conglomarates such as Google, Facebook, and, hell, even Youtube. This, thus, effects the extension of the …
I think most of you missed the point. Unlike cars or planes, which evolutionized how human beings navigated throughout the world, the internet is a major tool that enables us to, as Jeremy Rifkin would claim, the “central nervous system.” In other words, it is a technology that affects how we communicate with one another more than a technology that is used for mere convenience. For decades now, information has been distributed and shared via a one-way medium– that is, through television and …
Programmieren als Kulturtechnik!
you shall not simply ride in planes, you must also know how to build plane!
@CowboyNinjaD
I agree mostly with what you’re saying. People don’t *need* to know how change a flat tire but it’s real handy if they do.
Same goes for computers/software/internet, people don’t *need* to know how Facebook’s databases work, but it’s good if they have a general idea and can draw conclusions from that.
@CowboyNinjaD
Agreed – good analogy, too.
I’m actually curious what the full video will be.
@nielsbom I think there’s a middle ground where people don’t necessarily need to know how to write computer programs, but they should have some basic knowledge of programing, computer hardware, networking, etc. We don’t all need to be car mechanics, but everyone who drives should at least be able to change a flat tire or jump start a dead battery.
A weak analogy, but an interesting video.
@Discchord I see the analogy but in our more advanced world the analogy doesn’t hold up imho. There’s a topic on reddit on this video, some more interesting discussion there.
@nielsbom I get what you’re saying, but I think you’re missing the cultural significance in the so-called Information Age. As in his historical examples, language and text, it behooved you to fully understand the technology and any lack was symptomatic of a lower class. Today you’ll hear about the “digital divide” and I think this guy makes a strong point that, beyond access to the technology; it is important to understand or face the same problems of the lower classes before.
printf(“meh”);
As far as I remember, the phrase is “There are 10 types of people in the world. Those that know binary and those that don’t.”
When human beings aquired flying machines, only a small group knew how to build an maintain them. That is still the case today and there is no problem with that in my opinion. Same goes for agriculture, vehicles, chemical industry.
People don’t *need* to know how to program a computer to not be “programmed” by it. As with a lot of human inventions people just need to know who the maker/supplier is and what their intentions are.
Examples: junkfood, tv-series, cars etc…
@carnagerpm ….I thought it was 12, Cap.
There are only 10 types of people in the world……
This is why you learn these things.
And this is why I’m a programmer.
DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP