Program or Be Programmed
Ten Commands for the Digital Age
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- $6.900
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- $6.900
Descripción editorial
“Thinking twice about our use of digital media, what our practices are doing to us, and what we are doing to each other, is one of the most important priorities people have today—and Douglas Rushkoff gives us great guidelines for doing that thinking. Read this before and after you Tweet, Facebook, email or YouTube.” —Howard Rheingold
The debate over whether the Net is good or bad for us fills the airwaves and the blogosphere. But for all the heat of claim and counter-claim, the argument is essentially beside the point: it’s here; it’s everywhere. The real question is, do we direct technology, or do we let ourselves be directed by it and those who have mastered it? “Choose the former,” writes Rushkoff, “and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter, and it could be the last real choice you get to make.” In ten chapters, composed of ten “commands” accompanied by original illustrations from comic artist Leland Purvis, Rushkoff provides cyberenthusiasts and technophobes alike with the guidelines to navigate this new universe.
In this spirited, accessible poetics of new media, Rushkoff picks up where Marshall McLuhan left off, helping readers come to recognize programming as the new literacy of the digital age––and as a template through which to see beyond social conventions and power structures that have vexed us for centuries. This is a friendly little book with a big and actionable message.
World-renowned media theorist and counterculture figure Douglas Rushkoff is the originator of ideas such as “viral media,” “social currency” and “screenagers.” He has been at the forefront of digital society from its beginning, correctly predicting the rise of the net, the dotcom boom and bust, as well as the current financial crisis. He is a familiar voice on NPR, face on PBS, and writer in publications from Discover Magazine to the New York Times.
“Douglas Rushkoff is one of the great thinkers––and writers––of our time.” —Timothy Leary
“Rushkoff is damn smart. As someone who understood the digital revolution faster and better than almost anyone, he shows how the internet is a social transformer that should change the way your business culture operates.” —Walter Isaacson
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rushkoff provides 10 insightful guidelines for survival in the new world of digital communication, media, and technology. His admirable goal is to encourage people en masse to take control of cutting-edge communication tools and better understand how programming works, i.e., to be a clockmaker and not a cog. Rushkoff's narration for most of the audiobook is workmanlike. He utilizes shifts in cadence and emphasis to highlight important points, but his voice won't be particularly alluring to listeners. Curiously, in the final section of the audiobook, Rushkoff appears to go off script, speaking about the importance of his message. This may be jarring for some listeners, as he stumbles through this section. Though this may have been done to lend authenticity, it comes off as disjointed. A Soft Skull paperback.
