The Glass Cage: How Our Computers Are Changing Us

by Nicholas Carr

From the best-selling author of The Shallows, an urgent examination of the human consequences of automation.

What kind of world are we building for ourselves? That’s the question Nicholas Carr tackles in this important, absorbing book. Digging behind the headlines about factory robots and self-driving cars, personalized apps and computerized medicine, Carr explores the hidden costs of allowing software to take charge of our jobs and our lives. He draws on science, economics, and philosophy to make a compelling case that the dominant Silicon Valley ethic is sapping our skills and narrowing our horizons.

The Glass Cage is not just a timely critique of society’s growing dependence on computers. It’s a riveting story of humankind’s entanglement with machines. From nineteenth-century textile mills to the cockpits of modern jets, from the frozen hunting grounds of Inuit tribes to the “augmented reality” of Google Glass, Carr takes us on an unforgettable voyage of discovery culminating in a moving meditation on how we can use technology to expand life’s possibilities rather than narrow them.

Genres: Nonfiction, Technology, Science, Psychology, Sociology, Philosophy, Business

289 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 8, 2014

About the author

Nicholas Carr is the bestselling author of several books on how technology shapes our lives and thoughts, including the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Shallows and the new Superbloom. His other books include The Glass Cage, Utopia Is Creepy, The Big Switch, and Does IT Matter? Former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review, Nick writes for The Atlantic, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Wired, among other publications. He lives in Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Kunal Sen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved his earlier book, “The Shallows”, which dealt with the issue of how the Web could be altering our ability to think deep. The book was well researched and well argued. In this book he is raising similar concerns about automation. He uses various examples of how increasing automation is making us loose certain essentially human qualities. Automation is no longer just limited to replacing human perceptive and motor skills, but it is now entering into purely intellectual activities. He argues that this increasing reliance on automation may rob us so some qualities that are essential in defining who we are. He uses examples from various industries including auto piloting in commercial airplanes to self-driven cars and automatic medical diagnostic computers.

The problem I had with this book is not in its general conclusions, but the way he arrived at it. It smelled like one of those books where the conclusion is first drawn and then evidences cherry picked to support the thesis. While all the evidences he used are strong and compelling, rather obvious counter arguments are conspicuously absent. I cannot believe that the author, a brilliant thinker, could not think of these counter arguments, but it seems like he deliberately avoided them in order to make his point. For example, a significant part of the book tries to show how the popularity of auto piloting features in commercial aircrafts is causing a deterioration of pilot skills and caused a few accidents that were due to this loss of skills. I am not doubting this fact at all, and I think his conclusion is correct. While he admits that the number of airplane deaths have dropped dramatically since the advent of automation, he avoids the question whether we are better off with more automation, even at the cost of lower piloting skills, or the question of whether piloting skills can be improved through more mandatory simulated training.

He also makes some sweeping comments about the limits of computation. He takes it as a self-evident fact that computers can never “think” or have a “mind”. He is not referring to the state of computation today, but he makes a general pronouncement that this is simply not possible. While there is a lot of serious debate about this issue, it is certainly not a self-evident conclusion, and he should have at least mentioned that the jury is still out there on this issue rather than just dismissing it with no attempt at an argument. This is again a sign that he was more keen on winning an argument rather than discovering the truth.

There are some portions of the book that raises really interesting issues. He shows that even the gadgets that we use today are making some moral choices for us. For example a robotic vacuum cleaner treats a living insect and any other inanimate piece of dirt equally and would vacuum them both, but a human being may make a conscious decision not to do so. The same moral decision making by machines will get amplified when a self-driven car would have to make a decision between running over a small animal and protecting the car from damage or injury to the passenger. This problem would ultimately shake our moral roots when autonomous machines are used to kill people in a conflict.

In conclusion I do believe it is an important book, raising issues that needs to be discussed. I just wish it was better argued.

[Práxedes Rivera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though I am not a technophobe I find it very difficult to argue intelligently against Carr's outlooks. He is able to put into words what that pestering voice in my head is always hinting at...that automation (especially in internet-based technologies) takes away from us as much as it provides.

Automation is undeniably efficient and cost-effective. It makes so much of our lives easier and safer. But there is a price to pay for these treats. As a school librarian I see evidence of how automation is eroding students' abilities for reasoning their way out of problems, of being involved in the world, and of interacting meaningfully with one another.

The author presents us with an interesting viewpoint --by removing quotidian challenges automation prevents us from using the cognitive skills which make us more human-- with ample research to back up his claim.

Highly recommended even if you do not agree with the premise!

[｡.•*¨*•♬✧maeve ✧♬•*¨*•.｡ · Rating 1 out of 5]

⭐️1/5 recently remembered reading this for school….but can’t recall a single thing from it bc of the complete boredom:(

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do not recommend unless you’re studying technology or something lol

[Jennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best non-fiction books, in my opinion, shouldn't just entertain you, they should change you. Carr, like in "The Shallows," expertly takes an ubiquitous convenience of modern life -- previously, the internet, and now, automation -- and dismantles everyday idealistic assumption about the benefits of their increasing dominance of our lives. Using a mix of anecdotes, statistics, history, and even the theories of the Luddites and Marxists, Carr provides many convincing reasons why we should think twice before putting technological progress -- self-driving cars, self-flying planes, self-trading stocks -- before human beings who may not be best served by becoming mere shepherds or monitors of complex systems and algorithms. His chapter about how the brain processes spatial information, for instance, compelled me to turn off my GPS before I lose my sense of direction and become a slave to my smartphone. But Carr is not simply an alarmist. "The Shallows" is still a celebration of technology and progress, but one that asks us to consider the human consequences of its misuse.

Carr might not do enough to convince skeptics of his points. At the same time, some of the main conclusions of his chapters are left frustratingly vague. With the data he's presented, much of what he concludes could be stronger stated. Overall, though, it's a fantastic book about a topic that most people don't seem to think enough about.

[Julie Ehlers · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I previously expressed in my review of The Circle (109 likes and counting!), I am suspicious of, even alarmed by, people who try to persuade the rest of us to unthinkingly embrace new technologies in the name of progress, regardless of how we may actually feel about those technologies. My vague objections have found eloquent and comprehensive voice in The Glass Cage. Technology works best, Carr argues, when it enables us to live more fully in the world. Much of today's computer automation does the oppposite: Our memories deteriorate, because we can Google everything instead of having to call it up from our brains. Our sense of direction and awareness of our surroundings deteriorate, because we can use GPS and Google maps instead of paying attention to the context of our route. Using software, we can design buildings, write songs, make movies without really knowing how to do any of those things, and our art suffers as a result. We can fly planes without knowing how to fly planes (with occasionally disastrous results). If self-driving cars gain in popularity, we'll be able to drive a car without really knowing how to drive a car (presumably, with occasionally disastrous results). We adapt our lives to the new technologies and our lives get smaller as a result. The technology becomes the master, and we become the slaves, instead of the other way around. And unlike earlier technological advances such as electricity and indoor plumbing, we have not even the vaguest sense of how it all works. We trust that the innovators have our best interests at heart even though that notion falls apart under the slightest scrutiny.

This book packs a lot into 230 pages and all of it is important. It gets a wee bit repetitive toward the middle, thus forcing me to knock a star off my rating; a few more real-world examples would've been nice, not because I didn't believe what Carr was saying, but just to make things a bit more entertaining. Fortunately, the book picks up again with a discussion of the ethics of robots: On an icy road, a dog (or a child) runs in front of your self-driving car. Trying to stop on the ice could injure you or total your car, but not trying to stop could kill the dog (or the child). How does the self-driving car decide what to do in this situation? Or, more to the point, how is the inventor going to program the car to make this decision? Isn't this something we should be deciding for ourselves? What about in a situation with even higher stakes, like using robotic "soldiers" in a war? From this point on, the book read very quickly and its moral urgency was obvious. By the end, Carr and I were definitely speaking the same language:

"Resistance is futile," goes the glib Star Trek cliche beloved by techies. But that's the opposite of the truth. Resistance is never futile. If the source of our vitality is, as Emerson taught us, "the active soul," then our highest obligation is to resist any force, whether institutional or commercial or technological, that would enfeeble or enervate the soul.

I received this book via a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.

[Jim Nielsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved absolutely every page of this book. It's not just a book about technology and automation, it's a book about learning what it means to be human.

[Xavier Shay · Rating 5 out of 5]

What if the cost of machines that think is people who don’t?

Nicholas Carr's The Glass Cage is an important counterpoint to the dominant automation-at-all-costs mindset of Silicon Valley. That more automation is better is not as obvious a conclusion as many of us would like to believe. Carr is definitely not anti-technology though. This book is level-headed in discussing the positive and negative trends in automation, backed by a large amount of research. From pilots to doctors to inuit hunters, Carr present a comprehensive overview of automation across society today.

Three themes in particular stuck in my mind.

Sharp Tools, Dumb Minds

Carr summarises a number of studies that have measured the effect of computer aided learning.

One 2004 study presented two groups of people with the Missionaries and cannibals problem. The first group used a computer program that offered step-by-step guidance and prompts for valid moves. The second group used a basic computer program that offered no such assistance. The aidless group was slower to get started, but excelled in the later more complicated stages of the game. The first group, "by contrast, often became confused and would 'aimlessly click around.'" This same lack of fundamental understanding has been documented in the use of real world expert systems, in professions from accounting to medicine. This effect is compared later in the chapter to a calculator:

If you use the calculator to bypass learning, to carry out procedures that you haven’t learned and don’t understand, the tool will not open up new horizons. It won’t help you gain new mathematical knowledge and skills. It will simply be a black box, a mysterious number-producing mechanism. It will be a barrier to higher thought rather than a spur to it.

Expert systems do help experts be more effective, but you need to be an expert first.

Straightjackets Of The Mind

Several sections are devoted to medical systems and GPS navigation, two of the more common automation aids in widespread use today.

In the medical field, automated diagnosis has led to increased testing, bloated and unhelpful medical records, and excess billing for procedures that would historically have been routine.

One of the common assumptions about electronic records is that by providing easy and immediate access to past test results, they would reduce the frequency of diagnostic testing. But this study indicates that, as its authors put it, “the reverse may be true.” By making it so easy to receive and review test results, the automated systems appear to “provide subtle encouragement to physicians to order more imaging studies,” the researchers argue.

Further, when using common electronic systems "doctors can begin to display ‘screen-driven’ information-gathering behaviors, scrolling and asking questions as they appear on the computer rather than following the patient’s narrative thread.” As suggested by the earlier studies on learning, this effect is particularly detrimental in stunting the growth of inexperienced doctors.

Diagnostic accuracy is only increased when expert systems provide suggestions to the doctor for things they may have overlooked, rather than recommending an actual diagnosis. But these must be set at a threshold low enough that the alerts are actually read. The current trend is to over-suggest: "physicians routinely dismiss about nine out of ten of the alerts they receive."

Simarly, GPS systems are stunting the ability of people to navigate. In one study,

Some of the subjects were given hand-held GPS devices; others used paper maps. The ones with the maps took more direct routes, had to pause less often, and formed clearer memories of where they’d been than did the ones with the gadgets.

Carr however is more concerned by the alienation this causes rather than the direct lack of skill.

The automation of wayfinding serves to 'inhibit the process of experiencing the physical world by navigation through it.' [...] But while we may no longer have much of a cultural stake in the conservation of our navigational prowess, we still have a personal stake in it. We are, after all, creatures of the earth. [...] It provides a sense of personal accomplishment and autonomy, and it also provides a sense of belonging, a feeling of being at home in a place rather than passing through it. [...] the more you think about it, the more you realize that to never confront the possibility of getting lost is to live in a state of perpetual dislocation. If you never have to worry about not knowing where you are, then you never have to know where you are.

This is a recurring theme throughout the book. What are we losing in our relentless pursuit of technology?

Utopian Promise

The concluding chapter was also perhaps the scariest. Carr considers possible futures, particularly ones in which the relentless drive to automation frees society from the shackles of work to enable the pursuit of leisure. He does not find this scenario plausible:

It strains credulity to imagine today’s technology moguls, with their libertarian leanings and impatience with government, agreeing to the kind of vast wealth-redistribution scheme that would be necessary to fund the self-actualizing leisure-time pursuits of the jobless multitudes.

Quoting Hannah Arendt's The Human Condition, automation confronts us with "the prospect of a society of laborers without labor, that is, without the only activity left to them. Surely, nothing could be worse.”

I recommend The Glass Cage highly for anyone working the technology sector. It covers many more issues than the three I covered here, including driverless cars, historical trends, ethics (particularly in regard to military automation), de-humanization, aeronautical automation, and human-centered automation. We wield a great amount of power with the tools we build, and we have a responsibility to weild it wisely.

[Chris Ziesler · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Road Less Traveled

My first question on seeing this book was, is it going to be as successful and thought-provoking as Carr's previous book The Shallows? The answer is an unequivocal, "yes!"

If you've not read The Shallows I recommend that you consider reading it first because many of the thoughts and ideas from it are continued, developed and extended in The Glass Cage. It's not a necessary prerequisite but it would enhance your appreciation of Carr's arguments.

Carr's central thesis can be summed up in a quote often attributed to Marshall McLuhan, "we shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us."

Carr's point, which he develops with many intriguing examples ranging from airline pilots, through doctors, photographers, architects, and even to farmers, is that this Faustian pact with technology comes at a cost. The cost, in Carr's view, is a loss of direct, experiential, formative contact with our work. The consequences of this slow loss of familiarity and connection with our work are subtle, insidious and will only increase while we follow this technocentric approach to automation.

Carr is excellent at making his case. Most of his examples are familiar and those that less so, such as the automation of legal and medical opinions are interesting in that they affect us all.

I felt that where Carr was less strong was in proposing solutions to the problems he raises. He works hard at explaining an alternative vision calling on the poetry of Robert Frost's as a springboard to a more humanistic approach to developing tools, but it is hard work selling an alternative to the easy, convenient future that so many of us seem to crave.

Ultimately it may be that Carr's biggest contribution will not be to single-handedly derail the future that Google, Apple, and Amazon wish to sell us, an exceedingly unlikely outcome, but to at least make us aware that there is a choice that we are making when we choose the frictionless path to the future, and that we should carefully consider that choice before we make it.

[Barb Middleton · Rating 3 out of 5]

My husband's brain is better than a GPS. Usually, we scrap using the GPS machine because his navigating skills are better and more accurate. Basically, that's this book's message in a nutshell. The increased automation in society and the downsides of not honing skills that take time and experience (such as navigation) are leading to the loss of human-centered automation and over-reliance on technology. While Nicholas Carr acknowledges the wonder of increased speed and efficiency in technology-centered automation he looks at ways that this has led to problems in flight, self-driving cars, architecture, health care, the stock market and more. While it was interesting and well-researched, I got tired of the endless examples proving, for the most part, the same point. The historical aspects had unique tidbits and the shift from the industrial revolution to the technological infrastructure made me wonder how to apply the pros and cons of technology on a global scale. I did want more discussion and research on the effects of technology reducing the middle class in America. Carr has an easy-to-read writing style and is engaging if a tad long-winded.

[Sara Watson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got an advance copy of Nicholas Carr's The Glass Cage for a book review, but I backed down from writing it. Carr continues to be a contrarian voice to counter the main trends in technology, yet critiques without offering up alternatives to the dominant trajectory he is reacts to, in this case, automation. He equates automation in consumer tools like Siri to the automation of piloting commercial airplanes, altogether unhelpfully broad definition. The book is too wideranging to be helpful, and ends with a romanticized, idealized a view of technology as extensions of bodies (in the scythe sense of a tool that enhances work capabilities) rather than taking humans out of the work entirely. Carr makes genedered arguments about the emasculating effects of automation, without considering the female embodied perspective at all. He dabbles with historians who have worked on the narratives around technolgical progress, but does little with their insights. And that, I suppose, serves as my belated review.

[Doc Opp · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't agree with everything in this book. But it was 1) very well written and 2) made me think. And that's what I'm generally looking for in non-fiction.

The author's points are fairly nuanced, although he often focuses too much on failures (e.g. if introducing technology will cause 20 car crashes that wouldn't have otherwise happened, while preventing 200 car crashes that otherwise would have, he focuses on the former and brushes over the latter)... while he correctly identifies flaws in technological adoption, he often greatly overestimates unassisted human ability. That said, there are a lot of excellent points in this book, most importantly that we really ought to be deliberate in how we adopt tech into society, or else it will change our lives and culture in unanticipated ways that we may not desire.

Despite its occasional flaws, this is a book I recommend to anybody who has interests on how technology and humanity do and ought to interact.

[Bob Schnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Advanced Reading Copy review Publication date September 2014

Are smart phones making us less intelligent? Is technology a tool or a temptation? Who or what is the slave or master in our relationships with our automation? These and other questions are explored in "The Glass Cage" By Nicholas Carr.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is written for both technophiles and technophobes to take a step back and examine where modern technology has taken us and where it might lead us if we don't lead it. From autopilot and GPS to searchless answers and invisible interfaces, the author guides us through a minefield of musings on what it is to be human when we start to allow machines and algorithms do our work and much of our thinking for us. Fascinating and frightening, this book might cause a lot of people to look up from their screens to see where they are.

[Henrik · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a different edition of the book.

Very interesting and a fair warning to the potential dangers of automation. I do not always agree with his conclusions but that's not important. It is a book well worth your time.

[secret_place_of_books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ovo mi je druga Carrova knjiga. U prvoj je bilo riječ o utjecaju interneta na ljudski mozak dok je ovdje riječ o utjecaju računala odnosno automatizacije.

Nicholas Carr ni ovdje ne donosi ništa novo, ali je sistematizirao mnoga znanstvena istraživanja i stručne radove vezane uz razvoj tehnologije te uz znanstvene primjere navodi i primjere iz vlastitoga života.

Neka od ključnih pitanja kojima se Carr bavi su vezana uz mogućnost umanjivanja čovjekovih manualnih i kognitivnih sposobnosti zbog sve veće upotrebe automatizacije. Također, pitanje koje se postavlja kroz cijelu knjigu je vezano uz ulogu čovjeka u današnjem tehnološki naprednom svijetu, a glasi ,,Je li čovjek gospodar ili ipak samo sluga stroja?”

Osim toga, Carr upozorava na automatizaciju jer ona stvara lažni osjećaj sigurnosti te dovodi do opadanje koncentracije. Naime, prema njemu automatizacija “isključuje” ljude iz trenutne radnje stoga se ne treba iznenaditi što jednostavni problemi, u zadnje vrijeme čovjeku postaju nerješivi te mogu odvesti do smrtnih posljedica.

Carr navodi primjere iz stvarnoga života kao dokaze kako preveliko oslanjanje na automatizaciju može dovesti do tragičnih posljedica. Naime, čovjekovo povjerenje u softver toliko je veliko da je pojedinac spreman zanemariti svoju vidnu percepciju i prepustiti se navođenju računala.

Kako god bilo računala nikada neće moći zamijeniti čovjeka, i nikada neće postati ljudskim bićem.

,,Većina nas znade da je jedini način da u nečemu budemo dobri taj da se time zaista i bavimo. Lako je samo prikupljati podatke (...). No, istinsko znanje, osobito ono koje nam se duboko ugrađuje u sjećanje i manifestira se u vještini, teže se stječe.”

[Victor Gabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started strong and interesting but finished discussion kind of weak.

[Faith Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book felt a little scattered but enlightening! I enjoyed Carr’s research and anecdotes on the topic of technology. That being said, I wish he fleshed out the research more fully, as it seemed like he cherry-picked quite a bit, highlighting the negative effects of technology while neglecting to mention rather obvious arguments on the other side. I do feel this was important read, however, and I think it’s important information to know so that we can establish boundaries with technology and not surrender important aspects of our humanity as automation continues to play a larger part in our lives.

[Caren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this at a friend's suggestion, and I was interested in the material , for the most part. I found myself skimming quickly through some sections when his premise was clear but examples were lengthy. I think my favorite chapter was the last, which is the summation of his thesis. Using a Robert Frost poem about mowing, he meditates on the fact that humans actually need work and that letting machines take over more and more of both physical and mental work is damaging to the human psyche. Carr is no Luddite; he does realize the benefits of automation. He is just saying,'don't blindly accept every new technology; rather, think about its impact on real people and weigh the positives and negatives carefully.' Here is a quote from page 223: "Automation weakens the bond between tool and user not because computer-controlled systems are complex but because they ask so little of us. They hide their workings in secret code. They resist any involvement of the operator beyond the bare minimum. They discourage the development of skillfulness in their use. Automation ends up having an anesthetizing effect. We no longer feel our tools as part of ourselves....The more automated everything gets, the easier it becomes to see technology as a kind of implacable, alien force that lies beyond our control and influence. Attempting to alter the path of its development seems futile. We press the on switch and follow the programmed routine."
Here is another provocative quote, this one from pages 226-227:
"The belief in technology as a benevolent, self-healing, autonomous force is seductive. It allows us to feel optimistic about the future while relieving us of responsibility for that future. It particularly suits the interests of those who have become extraordinarily wealthy through the labor-saving, profit-concentrating effects of automated systems and the computers that control them. It provides our new plutocrats with a heroic narrative in which they play starring roles: recent job losses may be unfortunate, but they're a necessary evil on the path to the human race's eventual emancipation by the computerized slaves that our benevolent enterprises are creating....There's a callousness to such grandiose futurism. As history reminds us, high-flown rhetoric about using technology to liberate workers often masks a contempt for labor. It strains credulity to imagine today's technology moguls, with their libertarian leanings and impatience with government, agreeing to the kind of vast wealth-redistribution scheme that would be necessary to fund the self-actualizing leisure-time pursuits of the jobless multitudes. Even if society were to come up with some magic spell, or magic algorithm, for equitably parceling out the spoils of automation, there's good reason to doubt whether anything resembling the "economic bliss" imagined by Keynes would ensue."
He continues this line of thinking on page 228:
"The social and economic problems caused or exacerbated by automation aren't going to be solved by throwing more software at them. Our inanimate slaves aren't going to chauffeur us to a utopia of comfort and harmony. If the problems are to be solved, or at least attenuated, the public will need to grapple with them in their full complexity. To ensure society's well-being in the future, we may need to place limits on automation.We may have to shift our view of progress, putting the emphasis on social and personal flourishing rather than technological advancement. We may even have to entertain an idea that's come to be considered unthinkable, at least in business circles: giving people precedence over machines."
Amen to that. There is a lot to think about in this book. It would be a wonderful selection for a book discussion group.

[Lena R · Rating 1 out of 5]

author tries to make a new or original point (impossible edition)

[Breck Ekenberg · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I could give this negative stars I would.

[Doseofbella · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Glass Cage Automation and Us
By: Nicholas Carr Philosophy/Society
Norton & Company, Inc. 2014. Pages. 232
Copy Courtesy of Goodreads First Reads
Reviewed by: tk

Eye opening, thought provoking, superbly written from beginning to end.

Nicholas Carr introduces the ideals of automation in a extraordinary collection of detail, explanation, and examples of how our daily lives are being manipulated by machines.
I am not saying that is his intent. I am saying is that his compiled information in simple language for a lay person as myself, was absolutely terrifying.

Carr looks at the effects and outcomes of our daily decisions, and how we come to those decisions could possibly be not entirely our own. Most every household has a computer, or two. Ipods, Ipads, phones, tablets, gaming, the list goes on and on. How are these items controlling us? I interact with electronic devises daily, and I bet you do also. I wonder who is collecting the data that I am receiving and sending. I wonder if I should be concerned if anything information is being misinterpreted, or misrepresented in any way.

The accumulation of facts that Carr has complied is over whelming. A simple quote, “Sharp tools dull minds”. Consider the implication of just a quote. I remember what it was like before all these tools came into play. No microwaves, cell phones, computers, and what not. I fell life was simple, and full. Now…is it to easy, convenient, needed to complete ourselves as part of society, or are we becoming puppets on a string.

A MUST READ. You will have to decide for yourselves. I think this book should be required reading for everyone. This book is a tool, although not electronic unless your reading on an e-reader. I sincerely feel that even though some of the ideals are thought about, you never look outside of the box, to see what we are becoming, or where we are headed. The definition of ourselves are being diminished by the automation that we use. Please for you, your children, and your friends, read this book. Just be aware so your not totally in shocked into oblivion. Highly recommended. 5/5

[Carol Bakker · Rating 5 out of 5]

"This is a book about automation, about the use of computers and software to do things we used to do ourselves. It's about automation's human consequences."

Scene one: I raised my eyebrows when my GPS directed me onto a dirt road. My car climbed up the side of a mountain, no guardrails between me and the canyon below, the road the width of one car while I white-knuckled the wheel. I had exhibited automation bias, slavishly following a faulty model even when my instincts warned me.

Scene two: I visit my doctor, and watch her watch a screen and type while I answer her questions. This is the new physical examination.

Scene three: after clicking through 23 Facebook notifications you wonder what you've saved and what you've spent.

If these scenarios resonate with you, you'll enjoy reading The Glass Cage. Carr argues that our lives have not benefited from all the stuff our smart phones, computers and tablets do. "We're happiest when we're absorbed in a difficult task, a task that has clear goals and that challenges us not only to exercise our talents but to stretch them."

I'm a sucker for any discussion of the interface between technology and culture, but I was seduced by the syntax, by the sentences that sang. Then he ends the book by examining a Robert Frost poem, "Mowing."

And. I learned the etymology of robot: "The very word robot, coined by a science-fiction writer in 1920, comes from robata, a Czech term for servitude."

[D.C. Lozar · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a physician deeply concerned about the interposition of technology between my profession and the patients we care for, I found Nicholas Carr's books - The Shallows and The Glass Cage - as part of my research for a non-fiction book I'm writing for McFarland Publishing. Nicholas's writing has validated my fears, provided well-researched and annotated support for his arguments, and led me down several new paths of thought I had not considered. This book is superbly written, informatively, engaging, and, if you buy the audio version, narrated. If you've noticed that your doctor spends more time doing data entry than they do listening to you, these two books will hint as to why. I would recommend both books to anyone in the medical field and to anyone who feels that their creative edge, their focus, and intelligence may have been waning. It might not be you - Our computer's speedy processor may be making us all a bit slower.

[Matthew Weathers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book. Carr warns about how technology separates us from the world in some ways. However, it can also be carefully designed to be an extension of ourselves into the world, and that should be our goal. I liked his chapter about GPS devices, and I decided to sometimes drive places without a GPS sometimes. (My parents just completed a cross-country trip using only paper maps, no smart phones or GPS devices.)

[Ross Blocher · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're trying to get your head around your feelings toward technology and automation, The Glass Cage is full of relevant examples to consider. Nicolas Carr provides pros and cons, looks at the history of automation (from loom to autopilot to autocomplete), probes its psychological effects, economic impacts, key moments, greatest thinkers and innovators, and hints at what is coming in the future. I felt that Carr waited until the end of the book to provide a perspective of his own, which made it hard to get through, because I wasn't exactly sure what point he was trying to make along the way. The essays are alternately bearish and bullish on technology, which made me acutely aware of the lack of a thesis. It might help to read the last chapter and then go back to read specific examples. If it helps to know in advance, Carr understands that automation is here to stay, but advocates that we should build technology which complements our human bodies and brains, keeping us more engaged with the world and inspiring us to know more about it, not less.

Carr provides examples of technology making our lives easier, but also getting horribly in the way... or at the very least, dulling our senses. Autopilot innovation has seen flying go from risky venture to streamlined commodity, but in the process the human pilots have become computer operators rather than active participants in the flight's success. What used to be a crew has winnowed down to a couple pilots with diminished pay and prestige. While flying fatalities have decreased on the whole (a point that gets lost), Carr points to stories in which the pilots were unprepared to step in at the crucial moment when manual intervention is needed, doing the wrong thing and dooming everyone on board. And yet, there are also stories like that of the veteran pilot "Sully" Sullenberger, who successfully landed his plan into the Hudson River. Once again, having the thesis helps pinpoint the message: we can appreciate how technology frees us up to other pursuits, but we can't abandon our essential skills in the process. Once that's established, we can ask questions (as Carr does) about the psychological effects of a flight steering wheel versus a small joystick, and how well each connects pilot to plane.

Additional topics look at ways technology has transformed the human experience. GPS has curtailed centuries of indigenous wayfinding knowledge and reduced the average driver's knowledge of his or her surroundings (though the argument over "refusing to stop for directions" is a thing of the past). All the world's knowledge is now readily at hand, but our ability to retain information has suffered (I read this as an ebook, which made for a fun meta-experience). Stock market trades happen faster than human perception, but a bad algorithm can quickly cause billions in losses. CAD drawing programs have made it faster and easier to create blueprints, but do they rob us of the spontaneity and creativity-driving ambiguity of a pencil sketch? The lives of soldiers are saved by an increase in automated drones and robots, but how willing are we to cede the decision making of who lives and who dies - and how do we encode morality? Our factories require fewer workers, but how has craft and skill mastery suffered, and how do we employ the people who worked in the factories when the "unskilled jobs" can all be done by machines? What will we do when (it's only a matter of time) the "skilled" jobs are also done by machines? Is the automated result actually better? How much can human productivity drive our future economy... is it time for a societal redesign? How much faith do we put in the code, and who even understands that code, and more importantly... who owns it?

There and many questions raised, and plenty of opportunities for reflection. I was reminded often of the Carl Sagan quote (I'm surprised it's not included): "We've arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster."

[Claire Binkley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, this book's implications frightened me a lot about the future. However, I am ready to meet the challenges it presents!

What Nicholas Carr presents is how automated cars drive themselves into accidents, automated medicine is not really safe, and much more. To a definite extent, automatic is indeed better; for example, clutch cars have a huge learning curve. (My mother is the only one in this household who can drive clutch. She explained to me how, but I probably wouldn't be able to go up to a clutch car, turn the key in the ignition and drive to the library.)

However, this book highlights when and where the computer takes the wheel.

I found that intriguing! Do you think you would as well?

[Kate Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well done look at how computers have changed the workplace, this gives only a brief mention of the resultant unemployment, a feature that is central in similar considerations of this topic in the works of Yuval Harari. Pilots who never fly manually lose the ability to do so when computerized systems malfunction. Driverless cars will have to make moral decisions in emergency situations; who will decide how they are programmed for those situations? Fascinating, and I especially liked the final chapter when the author shows his poetic side in commenting on works by Robert Frost that deal with manual labor.
Are we made less than human when we allow machines and computers to do our drudge work? There are certainly occasional problems, but overall I'm with those who think it's a great improvement. Anyone want to go back to washing dishes or laundry by hand again?

[Victor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good reminder in this day and age of automation that we MUST not take things for granted.

This widened my perspective on how automation may not always be good. We need to be critical to what we accept as normal in our lives, and what role technology plays. Technology should be tools to advance the human experience. It is not always about the end, sometimes it is about the labor. Without challenge, life loses its meaning. Sometimes it is about experiencing the world, as it is, unadulterated by technology that we find ourselves, gain new skills.

[Mahmoud · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتاب نگاه عمیقی به تاثیر استفاده از فناوری (به مفهوم عام کلمه، نه فقط کامپیوتر) بر مهارت‌های اجتماعی انسان دارد. حال که گریزی از بکاربردن فناوری نداریم، پس چه بهتر که راهی بیابیم که مغلوب ساخته دست خود نشویم.
نویسنده نشان می‌دهد چگونه فناوری‌های نوین‌، و پرکاربردترین و گسترده‌ترین‌شان، اینترنت و موتورهای جستجو بر شیوه زندگی و عادات ما تاثیر گذاشته و چگونه موجب شده است که برخلاف ادعاشان در گسترش اطلاعات، منجر شوند کمتر تعمق کنیم و به تدریج «کم‌عمق» و سطحی شویم. «قفس شیشه‌ای» بسط همین مفهوم به رایانه و اتوماسیون است. هر چند هر فناوری‌ای در زمان خود نوین محسوب می‌شود.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great. From the first few pages I knew I would be hooked and the momentum continued throughout the end. I really enjoyed how Carr worked his way through recent history talking of automation. This gave me a more broad look at the effects it has on humans than just focusing on the computer age. I also enjoyed his examples that spanned different cultures, putting on display both the positive and negative of automation. It's sad to say this, but his conclusion of "give people precedence over machines" felt incredibly potent and relevant. Definitely a recommend for me!

[Zeke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It describes in detail how machines, robots, automation, and software have changed how humans work. While automation offers many benefits (such as allowing humans to forego monotonous, routine tasks so we can focus on tasks requiring higher cognition or judgement), it can also be debilitating (such as the case of pilots losing certain skills).

Given the increasing prevalence of software automation and talk of super A.I., this book encourages us to think critically about how we design work.