"Washington Post" reporter Joel Achenbach explores our relationship with technology-frequently beneficial, occasionally adversarial, and rapidly changing in a world growing more connected by the minute. In the second decade of this new millennium, we are more connected than we have ever been, and digital utopians speak of the new wonders ahead-artificial intelligence and augmented intelligence, a merger of humans and machines, and a coming era of transhumanism that we cannot possibly imagine. But there are dissenters. They see the rise of a surveillance state. They see personal data turned into a commodity. They see profits swirling to a few huge corporations. They see basic human interactions impaired by gadgetry. The most apocalyptic thinkers fear that machines will soon escape our control. They believe artificial intelligence will be our most catastrophic invention. These people do not form a coherent movement. But if they share a common message, it's that technology should serve humans and not the other way around. Joel Achenbach explores his own relationship with the digital revolution, as well as its future, in this eye-opening, intelligent, and entertaining look at how we connect today. |