So I found this book in an IT colleague’s office.
It’s called: “The Unofficial I Hate Computer Book”.
It was written in 1984, and like the George Orwell’s book by that name, it is a dystopian view of technology.
The back cover says:
Computer haters of the world unite: It’s time to recognize and avenge the wonderful advances we’ve made thanks to computers–excessive eyestrain and headaches, irritating beeping noises, a one-ton printout where once there was a six-page report, a “simple” programming language you can’t understand without five handbooks, a dictionary, and a math degree.
The book goes on with illustration after illustration of unadulterated computer hate and associated violence.
– Dogs dumping on it (see cover)
– Contests to smash it with a hammer
– Hara-kiri (suicide with a knife) into it
– Skeet shooting computers that are flung into the air
– Shotput with a computer
– Tanks rolling over them
– Sinking it in water with a heavy anvil
– Boxer practicing his punches on it
– Setting it ablaze with gasoline
– And on and on, page after hate-filled page.
So in the last 34-years, have we solved all the annoyances and complexity with computers and automation?
Do the benefits of technology outway the costs and risks across-the-board?
How do security and privacy play in the equation?
I wonder what the authors and readers back then would think of computers, tablets, smartphones and the Internet and apps nowadays–especially where we can’t live without them at all. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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