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A review by ethanbb
New Dark Age: Technology, Knowledge and the End of the Future by James Bridle
3.0
This book basically takes a number of disturbing trends related to information in the 21st century and links them together in a way that is somewhat compelling. It was an interesting read throughout, and I believe that both the overall message and many of the cautionary tales supporting it should be better known. The overall picture is very dark, and perhaps it deserves a sequel that fleshes out what we ought to DO about this situation (besides "think" more).
However, it left me wanting more in the way of analysis, as each chapter mainly consists of a series of stories, and their interpretation and connection to the overarching theme is conveyed in vague, subjective language. There are at least a few cases where the author (ironically) asserts a particular explanation for some event or phenomenon that fits with the narrative without mentioning competing explanations. There are also some very forced metaphors that were painful to get through. Thus, I did not come away confident that the author's interpretation was the full and correct story, but it did convince me that things are worse than I thought they were, and gave me some interesting ideas as to why.
However, it left me wanting more in the way of analysis, as each chapter mainly consists of a series of stories, and their interpretation and connection to the overarching theme is conveyed in vague, subjective language. There are at least a few cases where the author (ironically) asserts a particular explanation for some event or phenomenon that fits with the narrative without mentioning competing explanations. There are also some very forced metaphors that were painful to get through. Thus, I did not come away confident that the author's interpretation was the full and correct story, but it did convince me that things are worse than I thought they were, and gave me some interesting ideas as to why.