Silicon Snake Oil : Second Thoughts on the Information Highway

Customers who bought this book also bought:

The Cuckoo's Egg : Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage; Clifford Stoll
Being Digital; Nicholas Negroponte
Cyberpunk : Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier; Katie Hafner, John Markoff
Technopoly : The Surrender of Culture to Technology; Neil Postman

Reviews
Amazon.com
Stoll is the author of The Cuckoo's Egg : Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage, and an insider in the computer world. Still, he has mixed feelings about the "information superhighway." In this book he looks at what the Internet really is now, aside from all the hype and high hopes, and asks some down to earth questions about how we as users want the future of electronic communications to unfold. This book may challenge what you thought was most useful about the Internet. It may point out valuable aspects you never thought of. It will certainly get you thinking in a new way about computers and technology in general. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Book Description
In Silicon Snake Oil, Clifford Stoll, the best-selling author of The Cuckoo's Egg and one of the pioneers of the Internet, turns his attention to the much-heralded information highway, revealing that it is not all it's cracked up to be. Yes, the Internet provides access to plenty of services, but useful information is virtually impossible to find and difficult to access. Is being on-line truly useful? "Few aspects of daily life require computers...They're irrelevant to cooking, driving, visiting, negotiating, eating, hiking, dancing, speaking, and gossiping. You don't need a computer to...recite a poem or say a prayer." Computers can't, Stoll claims, provide a richer or better life.

A cautionary tale about today's media darling, Silicon Snake Oil has sparked intense debate across the country about the merits--and foibles--of what's been touted as the entranceway to our future.

Synopsis
The computer utopia heralded by fans of the Internet is expected to entertain, educate, and inform--by supplying the public with vast amounts of information and in the process turning the fractious world into a global village. In this intelligently written book, the bestselling author of The Cuckoo's Egg warns that we should pay attention to the bogus claims and hidden costs of t his so-called "Information Highway."

Back to Cyberculture
Back to Cyber Culture
Back to Main Index