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A review by elj_ne
New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future by James Bridle
3.0
A lot of the points put across in this book are very important and deserve to be discussed, all centring around the downsides of technology: the blindspots of developers, the ways in which it is used to further inequity, surveillance and stymy freedom and privacy, how it further concentrates power into the hands of a few.
However, many of the essays in this collection lack structure, often contain a lot of extraneous information + examples and use hyperbole far too often in a way I feel delegitimises the very real threats that are brought up. Maybe some of this is humour, but if so it doesn’t bring levity to the essays.
I also think the titles (all various words beginning with C for some odd reason) don’t fit well, this gimmick could have been dropped or sub-titles could have been added - it is it would be a difficult book to refer back to, as it’s pretty difficult to remember which essay’s about what. The lack of structure in the essays and tendency to go off on tangents decreases its accessibility, and it’s very pessimistic.
I do appreciate the importance of the values Bridle puts across at times: collectivism, accountability, explainability, cooperation, an expansiveness of thinking, but the lack of structure to this set of essays made the execution ineffective.
However, many of the essays in this collection lack structure, often contain a lot of extraneous information + examples and use hyperbole far too often in a way I feel delegitimises the very real threats that are brought up. Maybe some of this is humour, but if so it doesn’t bring levity to the essays.
I also think the titles (all various words beginning with C for some odd reason) don’t fit well, this gimmick could have been dropped or sub-titles could have been added - it is it would be a difficult book to refer back to, as it’s pretty difficult to remember which essay’s about what. The lack of structure in the essays and tendency to go off on tangents decreases its accessibility, and it’s very pessimistic.
I do appreciate the importance of the values Bridle puts across at times: collectivism, accountability, explainability, cooperation, an expansiveness of thinking, but the lack of structure to this set of essays made the execution ineffective.