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Your Computer Is on Fire

Edited by Thomas S. Mullaney, Benjamin Peters, Mar Hicks and Kavita Philip

Edited by Thomas S. Mullaney, Benjamin Peters, Mar Hicks and Kavita Philip

Edited by Thomas S. Mullaney, Benjamin Peters, Mar Hicks and Kavita Philip

Edited by Thomas S. Mullaney, Benjamin Peters, Mar Hicks and Kavita Philip

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Category: Technology

Category: Technology

Paperback $35.00

Mar 09, 2021 | ISBN 9780262539739

Ebook $25.99

Mar 09, 2021 | ISBN 9780262360784

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    About Your Computer Is on Fire

    Technology scholars declare an emergency: attention must be paid to the inequality, marginalization, and biases woven into our technological systems.

    This book sounds an alarm: we can no longer afford to be lulled into complacency by narratives of techno-utopianism, or even techno-neutrality. We should not be reassured by such soothing generalities as “human error,” “virtual reality,” or “the cloud.” We need to realize that nothing is virtual: everything that “happens online,” “virtually,” or “autonomously” happens offline first, and often involves human beings whose labor is deliberately kept invisible. Everything is IRL. In Your Computer Is on Fire, technology scholars train a spotlight on the inequality, marginalization, and biases woven into our technological systems.

    About Your Computer Is on Fire

    Techno-utopianism is dead: Now is the time to pay attention to the inequality, marginalization, and biases woven into our technological systems.

    This book sounds an alarm: after decades of being lulled into complacency by narratives of technological utopianism and neutrality, people are waking up to the large-scale consequences of Silicon Valley-led technophilia. This book trains a spotlight on the inequality, marginalization, and biases in our technological systems, showing how they are not just minor bugs to be patched, but part and parcel of ideas that assume technology can fix–and control–society.

    Contributors
    Janet Abbate, Ben Allen, Paul N. Edwards, Nathan Ensmenger, Mar Hicks, Halcyon M. Lawrence, Thomas S. Mullaney, Safiya Umoja Noble, Benjamin Peters, Kavita Philip, Sarah T. Roberts, Sreela Sarkar, Corinna Schlombs, Andrea Stanton, Mitali Thakor, Noah Wardrip-Fruin 

    Product Details

    Category: Technology

    Paperback | $35.00
    Published by The MIT Press
    Mar 09, 2021 | 416 Pages | 7 x 9 | ISBN 9780262539739

    Category: Technology

    Ebook | $25.99
    Published by The MIT Press
    Mar 09, 2021 | 416 Pages | 7 x 9 | ISBN 9780262360784

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    Praise

    “The collection of impactful tech issues interrogated over the span of decades in this book makes it recommended reading for anyone interested in the impact of tech policy in businesses and governments, as well as people deploying AI or interested in the way people shape technology.”—VentureBeat

    “Technology is so embedded in our lives that we can sometimes forget it is there at all. Your Computer is on Fire is a vital reminder not only of its presence, but that we urgently need to extinguish the problems associated with it.”—New Scientist

    “The book tech critics and organizers have been waiting for.”—Los Angeles Review of Books

    Table Of Contents

    When Did the Fire Start?
    Part One | Nothing is Virtual
    1 The Cloud is a Factory
    2 Your AI is a Human
    3 A Network is Not a Network
    4 The Internet Will Be Decolonized
    5 Capture is Pleasure
    Part Two | This is an Emergency
    6 Sexism is a Feature, Not a Bug
    7 Gender is a Corporate Tool
    8 Siri Disciplines
    9 Your Robot Isn’t Neutral
    10 Broken is Word
    11 You Can’t Make Games About Much
    Part Three | Where Will the Fire Spread?
    12 Coding is Not Empowerment
    13 Source Code Isn’t
    14 Skills Will Not Set You Free
    15 Platforms are Infrastructures on Fire
    16 Typing is Dead
    How to Stop Worrying about Clean Signals and Start Loving the Noise
    How Do We Live Now? In the Aftermath of Ourselves

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