System Error
Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot
Published on 23. March 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-1-5293-5674-8 (ISBN)
Description
Read this if you want to understand how to shape our technological future and reinvigorate democracy along the way. -- Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO of Netflix
__________
A forward-thinking manifesto from three Stanford professors which reveals how big tech's obsession with optimization and efficiency has sacrificed fundamental human values and outlines steps we can take to change course, renew our democracy, and save ourselves.
__________
In no more than the blink of an eye, a naive optimism about technology's liberating potential has given way to a dystopian obsession with biased algorithms, surveillance capitalism, and job-displacing robots. Yet too few of us see any alternative to accepting the onward march of technology. We have simply accepted a technological future designed for us by technologists, the venture capitalists who fund them, and the politicians who give them free rein.
It doesn't need to be this way.
System Error exposes the root of our current predicament: how big tech's relentless focus on optimization is driving a future that reinforces discrimination, erodes privacy, displaces workers, and pollutes the information we get.
Armed with an understanding of how technologists think and exercise their power, three Stanford professors - a philosopher working at the intersection of tech and ethics, a political scientist who served under Obama, and the director of the undergraduate Computer Science program at Stanford (also an early Google engineer) - reveal how we can hold that power to account.
As the dominance of big tech becomes an explosive societal conundrum, they share their provocative insights and concrete solutions to help everyone understand what is happening, what is at stake, and what we can do to control technology instead of letting it control us.
__________
A forward-thinking manifesto from three Stanford professors which reveals how big tech's obsession with optimization and efficiency has sacrificed fundamental human values and outlines steps we can take to change course, renew our democracy, and save ourselves.
__________
In no more than the blink of an eye, a naive optimism about technology's liberating potential has given way to a dystopian obsession with biased algorithms, surveillance capitalism, and job-displacing robots. Yet too few of us see any alternative to accepting the onward march of technology. We have simply accepted a technological future designed for us by technologists, the venture capitalists who fund them, and the politicians who give them free rein.
It doesn't need to be this way.
System Error exposes the root of our current predicament: how big tech's relentless focus on optimization is driving a future that reinforces discrimination, erodes privacy, displaces workers, and pollutes the information we get.
Armed with an understanding of how technologists think and exercise their power, three Stanford professors - a philosopher working at the intersection of tech and ethics, a political scientist who served under Obama, and the director of the undergraduate Computer Science program at Stanford (also an early Google engineer) - reveal how we can hold that power to account.
As the dominance of big tech becomes an explosive societal conundrum, they share their provocative insights and concrete solutions to help everyone understand what is happening, what is at stake, and what we can do to control technology instead of letting it control us.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Hodder & Stoughton
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 195 mm
Width: 128 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
250 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5293-5674-8 (9781529356748)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Jeremy Weinstein | Rob Reich | Mehran Sahami
System Error
Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot
E-Book
09/2021
Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
€3.99
Available for download
Persons
Jeremy Weinstein (Author)
Jeremy M. Weinstein is a professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. During President Obama's first term, he served as Director for Development and Democracy on the National Security Council staff at the White House between 2009 and 2011.
Rob Reich (Author)
Rob Reich is professor of political science and professor of philosophy at Stanford University. He is the director of the Center for Ethics in Society and co-director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society.
Mehran Sahami (Author)
Mehran Sahami is the director (and creator) of the Computer Science program at Stanford, the most popular major at the university (he is also an early Google engineer).
Jeremy M. Weinstein is a professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. During President Obama's first term, he served as Director for Development and Democracy on the National Security Council staff at the White House between 2009 and 2011.
Rob Reich (Author)
Rob Reich is professor of political science and professor of philosophy at Stanford University. He is the director of the Center for Ethics in Society and co-director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society.
Mehran Sahami (Author)
Mehran Sahami is the director (and creator) of the Computer Science program at Stanford, the most popular major at the university (he is also an early Google engineer).