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عصر مظلم جديد: التقنية والمعرفة ونهاية المستقبل
How the Information Age destroys knowledge
We live in times of increasing inscrutability. Our news feeds are filled with unverified, unverifiable speculation, much of it automatically generated by anonymous software. As a result, we no longer understand what is happening around us. Underlying all of these trends is a single idea: the belief that quantitative data can provide a coherent model of the world, and the efficacy of computable information to provide us with ways of acting within it. Yet the sheer volume of information available to us today reveals less than we hope. Rather, it heralds a new Dark Age: a world of ever-increasing incomprehension.
In his brilliant new work, leading artist and writer James Bridle offers us a warning against the future in which the contemporary promise of a new technologically assisted Enlightenment may just deliver its opposite: an age of complex uncertainty, predictive algorithms, surveillance, and the hollowing out of empathy.
Surveying the history of art, technology and information systems he reveals the dark clouds that gather over discussions of the digital sublime.
We live in times of increasing inscrutability. Our news feeds are filled with unverified, unverifiable speculation, much of it automatically generated by anonymous software. As a result, we no longer understand what is happening around us. Underlying all of these trends is a single idea: the belief that quantitative data can provide a coherent model of the world, and the efficacy of computable information to provide us with ways of acting within it. Yet the sheer volume of information available to us today reveals less than we hope. Rather, it heralds a new Dark Age: a world of ever-increasing incomprehension.
In his brilliant new work, leading artist and writer James Bridle offers us a warning against the future in which the contemporary promise of a new technologically assisted Enlightenment may just deliver its opposite: an age of complex uncertainty, predictive algorithms, surveillance, and the hollowing out of empathy.
Surveying the history of art, technology and information systems he reveals the dark clouds that gather over discussions of the digital sublime.
312 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2018
About the author
James Bridle
15 books219 followersFrom https://jamesbridle.com/about:
James Bridle (b. 1980) is a writer, artist, journalist, and technologist.
James Bridle (b. 1980) is a writer, artist, journalist, and technologist.
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January 27, 2019
This book had some real bright spots--the introduction was riveting and made me giddy about the book's possibilities. But it did not meet expectations. I've been waiting for a philosophical take on the internet age (the Neil Postman of the era) to tell us how the medium has changed the message and structure of modern life. The introductory thoughts of the book were as close as I've seen anyone get. The other books about the internet age are all the same--it's killing our brains and attention or the internet will fix everything. This book is on the pessimistic side, but each chapter just catalogs a bunch of problems of new tech without a coherent theory. I already know about surveillance and algorithms and worker abuse and climate change. Tech did not create all these problems and I don't think it will fix them. What I had hoped the book would get at were the profound and higher order problems of community, politics, etc. I think there is something to say here and no one has quite articulated it--I guess in the way I want to see it articulated. Maybe I'll just keep re-reading Neil Postman
December 17, 2022
نجمتان ونصف
هل ستُحسِن "التقانة" أو التكنولوجيا مستقبل هذه الأرض؟
للمؤلف نظرة سوداوية للمستقبل كما هو واضح من عنوان الكتاب، وتلك نظرة لا يستطيع أي عاقل أن ينفي صحتها. يطرح في هذا الكتاب على أرض الواقع مدى نجاح أو فشل تلك التقنيات في خلق عالم أكثر مثالية، وما الثمن الذي تدفعه البشرية الأن وفي المستقبل للإعتماد الكلي والتام على الألة.
في الحقيقة لم أستطع الإلمام بكيفية تنظيم وعرض الكتاب. فقد بدت الكثير من الفصول وعناوينها متشابهة في موضوعاتها. كما أن تمهيد أو "فرشة" الكاتب لكل فصل من الفصول كانت من أكثر أساليب الكتابة "الغير أدبية" تشتتاً التي شهدتها. فقد كنت اقرأ صفحتان في بداية كل فصل، وأقدح زناد فكري محاولةً فهم ما يريد المؤلف أن يقوله، إلى أن أُدرك بعد عناء موضوع هذا الفصل. ثم أحاول ثانية أن أفهم ما علاقة مقدمة الفصل بموضوعه، فلا أجد أي رابط غير انه كان عنده حكاية عاوز يحكيها وخلاص.
أستطيع أن أقول أنني استمتعت ب "روح" الكتاب أكثر من الكتاب نفسه. للكاتب رؤية تشاؤمية لمستقبل عالم يتحكم به قلة من المنتفعين الذين يتقلدون مفاتح إدارته من خلال الإله الجديد "التقنية"، والذين يمضي في ركابهم بتأييد أعمى مؤمني هذا الإله الجديد الذين سيُغرقهم "الطوفان" في النهاية كما سيُغرق الجميع.
يتناول ذلك من خلال تغير المناخ واخطاء التقنية الكارثية، والانهيار الكبير لعدد الوظائف المتاحة بسبب سيطرة الألة الأخذة في الالغاء التدريجي لقدرة الانسان العقلية والجسدية، والاستسلام الأعمى لكل ما يُعرض أو يُقال. والرعب الجديد، كيف تتغلغل الهواتف الذكية داخل عقولنا وتقرأ لنا افكارنا وتتحكم بها.
الكتاب مهم ويلمس الكثير من القضايا الهامة، ولكن عرضه لم يكن بالسلاسة التي تُمكن القارىء من الاستعياب الكامل لافكاره
June 26, 2018
I cannot sing the praises of this book enough, it is the kind of thing I have long wanted to read, and here it is, better thought out than I could have hoped. I have thought over many of the topics in this book before, and was still inspired by the richness of thought on display.
The book covers, in readable and clear prose, the various ways technology not only works, but encourages us to think. How by asserting that technology is 'neutral' we blind ourselves to its origins and its aims. Beyond all this the author makes one point, fittingly, very clear. Despite the origins and complications of these systems. The military origins of GPS, computation, the internet. Nobody designed the world, none of this was deliberate, everyone is slightly baffled and confused. The theories don't work, conspiracies run rampant, and we all see a different world from the selfsame sky.
We cannot ban the world, unspool the optical fibres, or grasp buildings and force them back into the ground. The world is here, and this book is a call to say even if we don't understand it, we must still aim to address it. When things are unknowable, we cannot lean into the notion that more data will be the solution, the solution is more thinking. Freer, wider thinking.
As the book says in the first chapter, our tools enourage us to think a certain way, but there are so many ways to use tools if we step back and really think. We must re-enchant our tools, if we see them not as natural, colossal inevitablities, but as things made for one purpose, which can be utilised for others. Well then we have a chance here and now in the present. After all, in an uncertain world, the only time to act is now.
I cannot recommend this book enough, go read it!
The book covers, in readable and clear prose, the various ways technology not only works, but encourages us to think. How by asserting that technology is 'neutral' we blind ourselves to its origins and its aims. Beyond all this the author makes one point, fittingly, very clear. Despite the origins and complications of these systems. The military origins of GPS, computation, the internet. Nobody designed the world, none of this was deliberate, everyone is slightly baffled and confused. The theories don't work, conspiracies run rampant, and we all see a different world from the selfsame sky.
We cannot ban the world, unspool the optical fibres, or grasp buildings and force them back into the ground. The world is here, and this book is a call to say even if we don't understand it, we must still aim to address it. When things are unknowable, we cannot lean into the notion that more data will be the solution, the solution is more thinking. Freer, wider thinking.
As the book says in the first chapter, our tools enourage us to think a certain way, but there are so many ways to use tools if we step back and really think. We must re-enchant our tools, if we see them not as natural, colossal inevitablities, but as things made for one purpose, which can be utilised for others. Well then we have a chance here and now in the present. After all, in an uncertain world, the only time to act is now.
I cannot recommend this book enough, go read it!
February 10, 2019
I started James Bridle's New Dark Age thinking it was another entry in the recent spate of "techlash" books. The subtitle, Technology and the End of the Future, is a hint. And the book does follow the tradition laid out by Carr, Morozov, Zuboff, Lanier, etc... yet it also heads in some very different directions.
tl;dr version - I thought this was going to target Silicon Valley, but instead the book reaches more broadly, seeing our world entering a confused, flailing epoch because of many forces, not just technological ones. It uses cloud as a key term, starting from cloud computing, but inflating it to mean a cloudiness of understanding.
New Dark Age does spend a lot of time criticizing technology. Big data, AI, drones... all come under scrutiny, and in many of the ways critics have been following of late. The digital world threatens privacy and institutions, reproducing racial inequalities and exacerbating economic ones, spreading poor information habits and content, while adding to climate change. These technologies "are potentially catastrophic," even computer simulations (15; chapter 2). Bridle offers some new ways into these issues, such as tracing the history of computing from British meteorology. His metaphors are fascinating, like comparing data not to oil, but to atomic power (248-9).
He also follows some observers in finding that human-machine collaboration can be more effective than either people or computers acting alone. A chess legend has made this case, but I'm charmed by the term given to a Google AI protocol: the Optometrist Algorithm ("a stochastic perturbation method combined with human choice") (99, 160). Michael Greer tweeted that the book is "less dark than the title might imply", and this is evidence for that view.
So where does New Dark Age branch off? To begin with, Bridle includes non-technological forces among the drivers of darkness. For example, climate change threatens (among other things!) to erode the physical infrastructure of the digital world, gnawing at cables and data centers (58). Increasing amounts of carbon in the human environment may actually threaten human cognition (73-5). The book sees the digital world making climate change worse, but doesn't blame the planetary crisis solely on bitcoin mining.
Similarly, Bridle spends time updating us on the crisis afflicting scientific research, noting that the pace of discovery has slowed down in some fields. In the pharma world this is dubbed "Eroom's Law" (Moore's Law, with "Moore" spelled backwards). The replication crisis, the shocking inability of researchers to reproduce some key discoveries, is sowing doubt across some fields. Bridle sees some role for tech here (see below), but again, doesn't ascribe blame solely to silicon.
While most tech critics avoid economics, or simply subsume markets and finance to technology, Bridle actually draws out the importance of huge economic forces. A good passage describing the quiet interweaving of data networks through poor neighborhoods doesn't see this as an effect of sinister silicon, but as high-powered finance capital at work (106ff). (But see below)
State power: while most tech critics focus on technology companies and either ignore governments or call for their assistance, New Dark Age carefully points out the role of states in driving technology's negative effects. Chapter 7 in particular dwells on military and intelligence agencies as using digital tools to cloak their operations, while expanding their ability to unjustly probe our own. The conclusion calls out states and allied businesses as imperial and colonial (246-7)
All of these forces, technological and non-, come together in Bridle's modified use of the term "cloud." Cloud computing is only part of the meaning. Bridle extends the metaphor to describe the ways increased information backfires into reducing knowledge, something that obscures our awareness, that not only hosts content but also blots and obscures. "Nothing is clear anymore, nor can it be." (72) "Cloud" also means "network" in a similarly detourned sense:
Network, cloud: Bridle wants us to rethink technology's language, "re-enchat[ing]... all our tools..." (13) If we think in terms of clouds and networks, understood in New Dark Age terms, we may be better prepared to understand computing and the world it helps shape through a cloud hermeneutics (134).
However, at times New Dark Age overfocuses on technology. The chapter on computing history and simulation, for example, charges technology with being "allied to a concentration of power" (34), yet at that point quietly lets the Cold War military - that immense concentration of power! - off the hook. Bridle's charge that computation thinking helps us confuse the map for the territory is one that applies to other, also influential fields, such as macroeconomics (dinged for precisely this point in 2008) or the modern state, in James Scott's analysis. A criticism of digital mapping failures should have noted that people have suffered from non-digital mapping mistakes.* A criticism of finance networks working through spaces occupied by underfunded hospitals doesn't quite land as a tech problem (110-111). The description of Amazon's workers being strictly controlled by software somehow misses a century of "scientific management."** Criticisms of Amazon and Volkswagen focus on tech and leave business, or neoliberalism, off the hook (119-120).
At other times New Dark Age zeroes in on technology's costs without noting its benefits. A discussion of mapping software correctly notes information that's left out, but fails to admit the resulting tool is actually quite useful, despite that flaw (35-6). Bridle argues that "computation... occludes the vast inequalities of power that it both relies upon and reproduces," yet is silent about the way millions use that same computation to expose, understand, and resist power (39). The discussion of mounting problems in scientific research does admit that technology helps correct it:
Further, Bridle's account of information problems - overload, a lack of consensus reality, conspiracies flourishing - admits no existing way for us to address them, which misses key realities. Media/information/digital literacy makes no appearance, nor do librarians. There's also a contradiction in the information discussion, as at certain points the book argues that the digital world has shattered consensus, while at others claiming computation thinking forces us into single, too simple thoughts (44).
There are also some curiously too-quick dismissals. Bridle slams geoengineering and new developments in material science in less than a sentence, without citation (64). Hollywood is paranoid, but it's not clear what that means (130). The charge that tech companies "are still predominantly white" (143-4) manages to both ignore the large numbers of Asians in those firms, disproportionate to their representation in the general population, while ignoring the fact that the majority of American adults are white. An early chapter makes good use of an 1884 Ruskin lecture, but then mistakingly sees it describing, not anticipating, World War I's battlefields, a generation later (195).
Overall, recommended, for all of its flaws.
*In one margin I jotted down a note about the Donner Party, misled by Hastings' Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California, because that's how I think.
**In Zamiatin's great dystopia We the doomed denizens must conform many physical activities to Taylorist strictures.
tl;dr version - I thought this was going to target Silicon Valley, but instead the book reaches more broadly, seeing our world entering a confused, flailing epoch because of many forces, not just technological ones. It uses cloud as a key term, starting from cloud computing, but inflating it to mean a cloudiness of understanding.
New Dark Age does spend a lot of time criticizing technology. Big data, AI, drones... all come under scrutiny, and in many of the ways critics have been following of late. The digital world threatens privacy and institutions, reproducing racial inequalities and exacerbating economic ones, spreading poor information habits and content, while adding to climate change. These technologies "are potentially catastrophic," even computer simulations (15; chapter 2). Bridle offers some new ways into these issues, such as tracing the history of computing from British meteorology. His metaphors are fascinating, like comparing data not to oil, but to atomic power (248-9).
He also follows some observers in finding that human-machine collaboration can be more effective than either people or computers acting alone. A chess legend has made this case, but I'm charmed by the term given to a Google AI protocol: the Optometrist Algorithm ("a stochastic perturbation method combined with human choice") (99, 160). Michael Greer tweeted that the book is "less dark than the title might imply", and this is evidence for that view.
So where does New Dark Age branch off? To begin with, Bridle includes non-technological forces among the drivers of darkness. For example, climate change threatens (among other things!) to erode the physical infrastructure of the digital world, gnawing at cables and data centers (58). Increasing amounts of carbon in the human environment may actually threaten human cognition (73-5). The book sees the digital world making climate change worse, but doesn't blame the planetary crisis solely on bitcoin mining.
Similarly, Bridle spends time updating us on the crisis afflicting scientific research, noting that the pace of discovery has slowed down in some fields. In the pharma world this is dubbed "Eroom's Law" (Moore's Law, with "Moore" spelled backwards). The replication crisis, the shocking inability of researchers to reproduce some key discoveries, is sowing doubt across some fields. Bridle sees some role for tech here (see below), but again, doesn't ascribe blame solely to silicon.
While most tech critics avoid economics, or simply subsume markets and finance to technology, Bridle actually draws out the importance of huge economic forces. A good passage describing the quiet interweaving of data networks through poor neighborhoods doesn't see this as an effect of sinister silicon, but as high-powered finance capital at work (106ff). (But see below)
State power: while most tech critics focus on technology companies and either ignore governments or call for their assistance, New Dark Age carefully points out the role of states in driving technology's negative effects. Chapter 7 in particular dwells on military and intelligence agencies as using digital tools to cloak their operations, while expanding their ability to unjustly probe our own. The conclusion calls out states and allied businesses as imperial and colonial (246-7)
All of these forces, technological and non-, come together in Bridle's modified use of the term "cloud." Cloud computing is only part of the meaning. Bridle extends the metaphor to describe the ways increased information backfires into reducing knowledge, something that obscures our awareness, that not only hosts content but also blots and obscures. "Nothing is clear anymore, nor can it be." (72) "Cloud" also means "network" in a similarly detourned sense:
to include us and our technologies in one vast system - to include human and nonhuman agency and understanding, knowing and unknowing, within the same agential soup. (5)Network thinking can be very positive, done right, as the network "can be a guide to thinking other uncertainties, making such uncertainties visible..." (76)
Network, cloud: Bridle wants us to rethink technology's language, "re-enchat[ing]... all our tools..." (13) If we think in terms of clouds and networks, understood in New Dark Age terms, we may be better prepared to understand computing and the world it helps shape through a cloud hermeneutics (134).
However, at times New Dark Age overfocuses on technology. The chapter on computing history and simulation, for example, charges technology with being "allied to a concentration of power" (34), yet at that point quietly lets the Cold War military - that immense concentration of power! - off the hook. Bridle's charge that computation thinking helps us confuse the map for the territory is one that applies to other, also influential fields, such as macroeconomics (dinged for precisely this point in 2008) or the modern state, in James Scott's analysis. A criticism of digital mapping failures should have noted that people have suffered from non-digital mapping mistakes.* A criticism of finance networks working through spaces occupied by underfunded hospitals doesn't quite land as a tech problem (110-111). The description of Amazon's workers being strictly controlled by software somehow misses a century of "scientific management."** Criticisms of Amazon and Volkswagen focus on tech and leave business, or neoliberalism, off the hook (119-120).
At other times New Dark Age zeroes in on technology's costs without noting its benefits. A discussion of mapping software correctly notes information that's left out, but fails to admit the resulting tool is actually quite useful, despite that flaw (35-6). Bridle argues that "computation... occludes the vast inequalities of power that it both relies upon and reproduces," yet is silent about the way millions use that same computation to expose, understand, and resist power (39). The discussion of mounting problems in scientific research does admit that technology helps correct it:
frauds are also being revealed by a series of connected, network effects: the increasing openness of scientific practice, the application of technology to the analysis of scientific publications, and the increasing willingness of other scientists - particularly junior ones - to challenge results. (88)One page complains that new taxi drivers in London can get up to speed on that city's road system more quickly than they did in the past, and it's not clear that this is a bad thing. (119) To be fair, Bridle allows that some of us see the internet as "allow[ing] many to realize and express themselves"... only to damn the entire thing by concluding that our use of the net is for ends "overwhelmingly violent and destructive." (229) No evidence is adduced for this claim.
Further, Bridle's account of information problems - overload, a lack of consensus reality, conspiracies flourishing - admits no existing way for us to address them, which misses key realities. Media/information/digital literacy makes no appearance, nor do librarians. There's also a contradiction in the information discussion, as at certain points the book argues that the digital world has shattered consensus, while at others claiming computation thinking forces us into single, too simple thoughts (44).
There are also some curiously too-quick dismissals. Bridle slams geoengineering and new developments in material science in less than a sentence, without citation (64). Hollywood is paranoid, but it's not clear what that means (130). The charge that tech companies "are still predominantly white" (143-4) manages to both ignore the large numbers of Asians in those firms, disproportionate to their representation in the general population, while ignoring the fact that the majority of American adults are white. An early chapter makes good use of an 1884 Ruskin lecture, but then mistakingly sees it describing, not anticipating, World War I's battlefields, a generation later (195).
Overall, recommended, for all of its flaws.
*In one margin I jotted down a note about the Donner Party, misled by Hastings' Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California, because that's how I think.
**In Zamiatin's great dystopia We the doomed denizens must conform many physical activities to Taylorist strictures.
October 24, 2022
كتاب يستحق كل دقيقة أنفقتها عليه. يتناول موضوع تغفل عنه الكثير من الدراسات المطروحة بالعربية سواء أكانت مترجمة أم مكتوبة باللغ العربية أصالة.
ها قد عدنا للعصور المظلمة من جديد. هذه المرة سنعاني من تغول التكنولوجيا بدل الطاعون، و عوض المجاعات، سنضطر للتعامل مع تلوث خانق و تغير مناخي سيغير الحياة بشكل درامي، و الأسوأ من هذا كله أنه لا أحد يسيطر على المنحى المتصاعد لتحكم التكنولوجيا بحيواتنا بله لا أحد يفهم ما سيؤول إليه الوضع في النهاية و رغم ذلك، يتحمس الكثيرون لِ و ضد التكنولوجيا.
الإدمان المرضي على وسائل التواصل الإجتماعي، دولة المراقبة بالكامرات
CCTV as Big Brother,
الأخبار الزائفة و نظريات المؤامرة المبالغ فيها...... كلها تجليات مخيفة لما يفرضه علينا عصر التكنولوجيا الذي نكابده حاليا بغض الطرف عن كل الإيجابيات المحتملة.........
كيف سنجهز أبنائنا للتعامل مع ما تفرضه التكنولوجيا؟ هل تؤثر الأصول العسكرية المحضة لبعض الإختراعات على منحى تطور تعاملنا معها؟ (gps, the net,.....)
ها قد عدنا للعصور المظلمة من جديد. هذه المرة سنعاني من تغول التكنولوجيا بدل الطاعون، و عوض المجاعات، سنضطر للتعامل مع تلوث خانق و تغير مناخي سيغير الحياة بشكل درامي، و الأسوأ من هذا كله أنه لا أحد يسيطر على المنحى المتصاعد لتحكم التكنولوجيا بحيواتنا بله لا أحد يفهم ما سيؤول إليه الوضع في النهاية و رغم ذلك، يتحمس الكثيرون لِ و ضد التكنولوجيا.
الإدمان المرضي على وسائل التواصل الإجتماعي، دولة المراقبة بالكامرات
CCTV as Big Brother,
الأخبار الزائفة و نظريات المؤامرة المبالغ فيها...... كلها تجليات مخيفة لما يفرضه علينا عصر التكنولوجيا الذي نكابده حاليا بغض الطرف عن كل الإيجابيات المحتملة.........
كيف سنجهز أبنائنا للتعامل مع ما تفرضه التكنولوجيا؟ هل تؤثر الأصول العسكرية المحضة لبعض الإختراعات على منحى تطور تعاملنا معها؟ (gps, the net,.....)
August 8, 2018
Based on the title NEW DARK AGE alone, we might well go in expecting author James Bridle to take on the roll of canary in the coalmine. If carbon ideologues cannot stop carping on their mandate to keep the lights turned on, we might expect Bridle to perhaps paint a picture of an encroaching world in which our thoughtless burning of fossil fuels has made it so that our lights cannot stay on anymore. This is not, in fact, the actual meaning of Bridle's iteration of "dark world." It is less a matter of there being no future than that the future is already here. Things will get worse, naturally, environmental calamity especially so, but our dark world is already here and has been forged by runaway computation, technological opacity, and the overflow of information (productive as this is of a multiplicity of contradictory, divisive, and over-simplified master narratives). This is the age of the network and Bridle insists that we must think the network system-wide. There is too much data and we cannot know how the intelligent machines we have produced think. Data, rather then taking us to some future point where all will be revealed, finds us in a world we can only faintly know; our perplexity and incapacity will only grow. It is not the particulars of our network that are problematic. All of our prejudices and liabilities have been brought to bear from the very inception of the apparatus, and as technologies with a military origin become increasingly woven into the fabric of everyday life, we become more exploited, more frustrated, and our societies more fractious. NEW DARK AGE is structured in ten chapters each beginning with the letter C, from "Chasm" to "Cloud." The cloud itself appears at the beginning and is brilliantly used to represent overarching opacity. Bridle: "the first criticism of the cloud is that it is a very bad metaphor. The cloud is not weightless; it is not amorphous, or even invisible, if you know where to look for it. The cloud is not some magical or faraway place, made of water vapour and radio waves, where everything just works. It is a physical infrastructure consisting of phone lines, fibre optics, satellites, cables on the ocean floor, and vast warehouses filled with computers, which consume huge amounts of water and energy and reside within national and legal jurisdictions." The network that spans the earth and conditions the world (as an ongoing culmination of human endeavour) is both virtual and all too actual. Data and computation cannot think our world. Bridle insists that only we, though positioned in the darkness of the shadow cast by that which we have built, can do that. Using data to predict the future is a losing cause; we see it fail more and more. The metadata accumulated by mass-surveillance produces far too much information to be of much use to intelligence agencies. Algorithms become just another tool of exploitation, confusion, and systematic derangement. Cambridge Analytica, troll farms, and Russian interference are emblematic. The Russians especially are a case in point. Viewers of Adam Curtis's HYPERNORMALIZATION will be familiar with the temper of revelations here: the Russians are less interested in cherry-picking Western leaders or pushing measures like Brexit through than they are in producing mass confusion and animus upon which they can capitalize. In the end it becomes all but impossible to disentangle all the players. Our economics and technology are inherently divisive and they are in overdrive. The subtitle of Bridle's book may be misleading. It is not that we have no future left. Quite the contrary. We live in darkness and there is no way out. What do we do? NEW DARK AGE ends by suggesting that the onus is upon us to become provisional guardians of our world, too complex to fully fathom and wholly impossible to steer though it is. Deeper than this outright (though somewhat vague) call to arms, is what I would call a spiritual thread running through the book. Full disclosure: like all readers I bring my own horizon to bear in my encounters with texts. I happen to be an twelve-stepping recovering alcoholic, and to me the primary spiritual principal from which all efficacious spiritual business sprouts is acceptance. We are not excused from taking action. We must. That is the only way to live. But we have no dominion over people, places, and things outside of our control. Submit to this fact ... or live in endless perturbation. At the end of his chapter on "Conspiracy," Bridle speaks of living in the "gray zone." The gray zone "allows us to sample from the myriad of explanations that our limited cognition stretches like a mask over the vibrating half-truths of the world. It is a better approximation of reality than any rigid binary encoding can ever hope to be -- an acknowledgment that all our apprehensions are approximations, and all the more powerful for being so. The gray zone allows us to make peace with the otherwise-irreconcilable, conflicting worldviews that prevent us from taking meaningful action in the present." It is not a matter of finding our way out of darkness but rather of finding a way to live within it; this is what prompts me to speak of the underpinning spiritual register of NEW DARK AGE. I appreciate the reminder that one can live in these times, contrary to the leanings of the species at large, in a state of emotional sobriety and connection.
July 21, 2026
A litany of lament at the failure of technology to carve out a liveable future, a grim augury on the hastening of climate collapse with the explosion of AI data centres, and other reasons we are regressing back into the primordial soup. An extremely riveting and rigorous read for fans of dystopian nonfiction.
February 10, 2022
Pochmúrne analýzy súčasného stavu spoločnosti, ktoré varujú pred tým, čo prichádza, sú mojím obľúbeným subžánrom. Ako keby mi nestačilo to, čo každý deň žijeme.
Temný novovek na to ide cez našu čoraz väčšiu závislosť na technológiách, ktoré sa nám vymykaju spod kontroly. Všetko sa neustále zrýchľuje, my sa topíme v dátach a prestávame rozumieť tomu, ako fungujú algoritmy, ktoré nám zabezpečujú čoraz viac každodenných činností. Možno sme už dosiahli zlom poznania, keďže nad niektorými vecami (klíma, predpovedanie počasia, obsahy sociálnych platforiem, obchodovanie na burze) máme čoraz menšiu kontrolu.
A propos, klíma. Zvyšujúca sa koncentrácia CO2 v ovzduší má okrem otepľovania planéty ešte jeden nepríjemný efekt - je ďalšou vecou, ktorá nás osprosťuje. Ak pôjde všetko tak ako doteraz, na konci storočia bude vo vzduchu toľko oxidu uhličitého, že budeme ako v nonstop vydýchanej izbe a naše kognitívne schopnosti budú znížené cca o štvrtinu. Čiže máme čoraz menšiu schopnosť niečo s tým urobiť, čo je v nepriamej úmere s tým, že máme čoraz väčší problém.
Všadeprítomné algoritmy nám vnucujú robotické myslenie a čoraz menej im rozumieme. Tomu, ako funguje umelá inteligencia v Googli, vraj už nerozumejú ani jej tvorcovia. Na YouTube stroje donekonečna vytvárajú iracionálne koláže iných videí v snahe generovať čo najviac klikov, vo veľkých eshopoch sa automaticky generujú produkty, ktoré v skutočnosti neexistujú (Amazon predával obaly na mobil s motívom hendikepovaného starca na vozíku, alebo tričká s nápisom Zachovaj pokoj a často znásilňuj), burzy už nefungujú ako vo filme Wall Street, ale prostrednícvom “vysokofrekvenčného obchodovania” v “čiernych bazénoch”, o ktorom prakticky nikdo netuší prakticky nič.
Tieto témy sú ťažko uchopiteľné, nedajú sa extrahovať do novinových titulkov a preto o nich ľudia neradi premýšľajú. O svete vieme čoraz viac, ale sme čoraz menej schopní konať. Čo s tým? "Čo má robiť racionálny aktér uprostred iracionálneho systému? Jeho konanie aj tak vedie k iracionálnym výsledkom," dodáva autor knihy.
Temný novovek na to ide cez našu čoraz väčšiu závislosť na technológiách, ktoré sa nám vymykaju spod kontroly. Všetko sa neustále zrýchľuje, my sa topíme v dátach a prestávame rozumieť tomu, ako fungujú algoritmy, ktoré nám zabezpečujú čoraz viac každodenných činností. Možno sme už dosiahli zlom poznania, keďže nad niektorými vecami (klíma, predpovedanie počasia, obsahy sociálnych platforiem, obchodovanie na burze) máme čoraz menšiu kontrolu.
A propos, klíma. Zvyšujúca sa koncentrácia CO2 v ovzduší má okrem otepľovania planéty ešte jeden nepríjemný efekt - je ďalšou vecou, ktorá nás osprosťuje. Ak pôjde všetko tak ako doteraz, na konci storočia bude vo vzduchu toľko oxidu uhličitého, že budeme ako v nonstop vydýchanej izbe a naše kognitívne schopnosti budú znížené cca o štvrtinu. Čiže máme čoraz menšiu schopnosť niečo s tým urobiť, čo je v nepriamej úmere s tým, že máme čoraz väčší problém.
Všadeprítomné algoritmy nám vnucujú robotické myslenie a čoraz menej im rozumieme. Tomu, ako funguje umelá inteligencia v Googli, vraj už nerozumejú ani jej tvorcovia. Na YouTube stroje donekonečna vytvárajú iracionálne koláže iných videí v snahe generovať čo najviac klikov, vo veľkých eshopoch sa automaticky generujú produkty, ktoré v skutočnosti neexistujú (Amazon predával obaly na mobil s motívom hendikepovaného starca na vozíku, alebo tričká s nápisom Zachovaj pokoj a často znásilňuj), burzy už nefungujú ako vo filme Wall Street, ale prostrednícvom “vysokofrekvenčného obchodovania” v “čiernych bazénoch”, o ktorom prakticky nikdo netuší prakticky nič.
Tieto témy sú ťažko uchopiteľné, nedajú sa extrahovať do novinových titulkov a preto o nich ľudia neradi premýšľajú. O svete vieme čoraz viac, ale sme čoraz menej schopní konať. Čo s tým? "Čo má robiť racionálny aktér uprostred iracionálneho systému? Jeho konanie aj tak vedie k iracionálnym výsledkom," dodáva autor knihy.
April 8, 2024
Aslında oldukça sevdim Yeni Karanlık Çağ'ı ama yazarın çok daha iyi bir eser, hatta bir başyapıt ortaya koyma fırsatını kaçırdığını düşünmeden de edemiyorum. Kitabın ilk bölümünü okuduğumda Postman'ın Teknopoli'sinin günümüzü konu alan versiyonunu okuyacağımı düşünmüştüm, umduğumu bulduğum bölümler de oldu ancak Bridle bazı kısımlarda odağını belli sektörlere gereğinden fazla yoğunlaşmıştırmış. Öyle ki kitabın anlatmaya çalıştığı derde hiçbir katkısı olmayan teknik açıklamalara dahi yer vermiş. Böyle olunca kitap arka kapağın bize hissetirdiği geniş çerçeveyi sunmakta pek başarılı olamıyor.
Yine de dediğim gibi epey iyi bir çalışma Yeni Karanlık Çağ. Bridle teknolojinin düşünme yapımızı nasıl değiştirdiğini, içinde yaşadığımız sistemin yozlaşmasına nasıl katkı sağladığını teknoloji düşmanlığı yapmadan, çok sıkıcı da olmadan anlatabilmiş. Kusurlarına rağmen günümüzde her zamankinden daha fazla ihtiyaç duyduğumuz teknoloji eleştirilerine iyi bir örnek olarak sayabiliriz Yeni Karanlık Çağ'ı.
Yine de dediğim gibi epey iyi bir çalışma Yeni Karanlık Çağ. Bridle teknolojinin düşünme yapımızı nasıl değiştirdiğini, içinde yaşadığımız sistemin yozlaşmasına nasıl katkı sağladığını teknoloji düşmanlığı yapmadan, çok sıkıcı da olmadan anlatabilmiş. Kusurlarına rağmen günümüzde her zamankinden daha fazla ihtiyaç duyduğumuz teknoloji eleştirilerine iyi bir örnek olarak sayabiliriz Yeni Karanlık Çağ'ı.
September 16, 2022
ترجمة عنوان الكتاب بالعربية عصر مظلم جديد وصدرت طبعته العربية ضمن سلسلة عالم المعرفة الشهيرة ترجم الكتاب مجدي عبدالمجيد ناصر والترجمة أكثر من رائعة يقع الكتاب في عشرة فصول بداية من تاريخ الحوسبة وتكنولوچيا المعلومات ومدى سيطرتها على حياتنا من كل الجوانب في عرض علمي شائق جذاب للغاية لموضوع معقد ربط المؤلف به الذكاء الصناعي بالتغيرات المناخية بأضرار الرأسمالية مما أدى في النهاية إلى رسم صورة ديستوبية مظلمة للمستقبل
October 1, 2019
Resenha em breve
November 1, 2018
I can't say it's a good book, but "New Dark Age" raises questions so important and I enjoyed it so much that I feel necessary to rate it highly. Just like its subject – the interconnected cloud/network – it sprawls in multiple directions at once and doesn't present an easily discernible narrative for a moderately educated person like me, but reads more like a collection of thoughts and approaches inspired by a common underlying philosophy.
Because of this, the book will probably seem too basic for advanced techno-philosophical readers and for a completely unprepared person it will be too alarming to process and is likely to be rejected altogether.
But I personally enjoyed it, found a lot of areas and questions worth investigating and reading on further and can recommend it to anyone who considered themselves a technological optimist, but is ready to question that notion.
Because of this, the book will probably seem too basic for advanced techno-philosophical readers and for a completely unprepared person it will be too alarming to process and is likely to be rejected altogether.
But I personally enjoyed it, found a lot of areas and questions worth investigating and reading on further and can recommend it to anyone who considered themselves a technological optimist, but is ready to question that notion.
November 1, 2018
Unfortunately, I have not seen fulfilled the promises of the introduction. It could have been a great read was it not mainly consisting of a number of unremarkable remarks about the advance of technology.
April 9, 2021
How To Step Out of A Feedback Loop
This book will blow your mind, and not in the most comforting way. Technology has worked its way into every single facet of our society and in so doing has restructured and reorganized everything around itself. James Bridle takes us through the many ways in which technology has transformed the world, and the ways in which we have lost control of it, and therefore ourselves. If that doesn't sound encouraging or hopeful, you'd be right. However, as Bridle himself points out, in order to correct the system we must first reckon with it in an honest and straightforward matter. Pretending the problem doesn't exist only takes us further and further away from fixing it.
This isn't a very long book by any means, but it packs a punch. Bridle takes us through the history of computation and how it transformed industry after industry until it became inseparable from our daily lives in the Information Age. With this idea of computation as the base, we look at different elements of our modern world and how technology has shaped and molded reality into its own image.
One of the scariest themes of this book is how fragile this giant, worldwide machine really is. One chapter is about the physical infrastructure of the internet - server farms, undersea cables, antennae, etc. Even though it feels abstract and unreal, the internet and all its workings have a very tangible and real presence (and energy demand/carbon footprint). The workings of the world rely so heavily on this network, and so any disruptions can have catastrophic global impacts.
This is one of the many ways that Bridle explores what I believe to be the main theme of this book - that we as humans have become too reliant on technology to think for us, rather than using it to help us think. Computers excel at modeling situations and taking into account all its logical outcomes, but by and large lack the human capacity to push in an illogical or unexpected direction. These algorithms base their results on simulations run billions of times over, and we have allowed our own reality to be based on the simulation of a computer. (This is an oversimplification I'm sure, but I think the point still stands.) The lines between reality and simulation are increasingly blurred, and so in an ironic twist, we are increasingly living in a simulation, but it's one of our own creation.
All hope isn't lost, however. Bridle discusses situations where creations were made and new innovations discovered when humans and computers worked in tandem. Scientists using the raw computational power of a program were able to see a much broader view of the problem they were working on, but pushed it in a much different direction than the computer would have determined on its own. They were informed by the results of the computer, but not commanded by it.
I think that Bridle would be among the first to tell you the value of technology as a whole and the potential it has to inform our understanding of the world around us. However, it's only a tool. It cannot explain every facet of reality, cannot predict the future, cannot eliminate all uncertainty. When we rely on it to do so, we enter an overwhelming feedback loop of looking backwards to try and tell us which is the right step forward. An over-reliance on technology has brought us into the warped world we live in, where no matter how much data we produce, the less things make sense.
I admit I felt hopeless at the beginning of this book because it laid bare so many of the problems with how technology has used, as well as the sheer scale of these problems. However I think there's an optimism infused here, even within the oftentimes brutal honesty. Technology is a tool - the scale of technology in the modern world is far beyond a simple hammer or spear, but it is still a tool, albeit a much more pervasive one. We have lost sight of this, and become far too reliant on this tool to tell us exactly what to do, all the time. I don't think the solution is to get rid of all technology, and I don't think Bridle would advocate that either. If there is a solution to all this, I think it begins with rethinking our relationship with data and tech - using it to help and support us, but not to lead us. If we can start to think with technology instead of trying to make it think for us, we might have a chance at undoing some of the damage we've caused. But first we have to take that step forward, for ourselves.
This book will blow your mind, and not in the most comforting way. Technology has worked its way into every single facet of our society and in so doing has restructured and reorganized everything around itself. James Bridle takes us through the many ways in which technology has transformed the world, and the ways in which we have lost control of it, and therefore ourselves. If that doesn't sound encouraging or hopeful, you'd be right. However, as Bridle himself points out, in order to correct the system we must first reckon with it in an honest and straightforward matter. Pretending the problem doesn't exist only takes us further and further away from fixing it.
This isn't a very long book by any means, but it packs a punch. Bridle takes us through the history of computation and how it transformed industry after industry until it became inseparable from our daily lives in the Information Age. With this idea of computation as the base, we look at different elements of our modern world and how technology has shaped and molded reality into its own image.
One of the scariest themes of this book is how fragile this giant, worldwide machine really is. One chapter is about the physical infrastructure of the internet - server farms, undersea cables, antennae, etc. Even though it feels abstract and unreal, the internet and all its workings have a very tangible and real presence (and energy demand/carbon footprint). The workings of the world rely so heavily on this network, and so any disruptions can have catastrophic global impacts.
This is one of the many ways that Bridle explores what I believe to be the main theme of this book - that we as humans have become too reliant on technology to think for us, rather than using it to help us think. Computers excel at modeling situations and taking into account all its logical outcomes, but by and large lack the human capacity to push in an illogical or unexpected direction. These algorithms base their results on simulations run billions of times over, and we have allowed our own reality to be based on the simulation of a computer. (This is an oversimplification I'm sure, but I think the point still stands.) The lines between reality and simulation are increasingly blurred, and so in an ironic twist, we are increasingly living in a simulation, but it's one of our own creation.
All hope isn't lost, however. Bridle discusses situations where creations were made and new innovations discovered when humans and computers worked in tandem. Scientists using the raw computational power of a program were able to see a much broader view of the problem they were working on, but pushed it in a much different direction than the computer would have determined on its own. They were informed by the results of the computer, but not commanded by it.
I think that Bridle would be among the first to tell you the value of technology as a whole and the potential it has to inform our understanding of the world around us. However, it's only a tool. It cannot explain every facet of reality, cannot predict the future, cannot eliminate all uncertainty. When we rely on it to do so, we enter an overwhelming feedback loop of looking backwards to try and tell us which is the right step forward. An over-reliance on technology has brought us into the warped world we live in, where no matter how much data we produce, the less things make sense.
I admit I felt hopeless at the beginning of this book because it laid bare so many of the problems with how technology has used, as well as the sheer scale of these problems. However I think there's an optimism infused here, even within the oftentimes brutal honesty. Technology is a tool - the scale of technology in the modern world is far beyond a simple hammer or spear, but it is still a tool, albeit a much more pervasive one. We have lost sight of this, and become far too reliant on this tool to tell us exactly what to do, all the time. I don't think the solution is to get rid of all technology, and I don't think Bridle would advocate that either. If there is a solution to all this, I think it begins with rethinking our relationship with data and tech - using it to help and support us, but not to lead us. If we can start to think with technology instead of trying to make it think for us, we might have a chance at undoing some of the damage we've caused. But first we have to take that step forward, for ourselves.
December 10, 2018
‘Tech stuff’, actually not my cup of tea which is probably a very stupid thing to say in 2018 where every aspect of our lives is in one way or another influenced by ‘the internet’ and ‘technology’ and ‘artificial intelligence’. Global financial capitalism would in this form not be possible without it. And maybe that’s part of what the book ‘The new dark age’ (VERSO, 2018) is about. As the world around us increases in technological complexity, our understanding of it becomes less. The underlying idea is that our existence is understandable through computation and the idea that if we had all the data and means to compute it we could fix just about any social problem. I am not so much interested in the tech stuff – although it is indeed unsettling of what is technologically possible and its implications on power (surveillance and manipulation) etc – but more so in its ideological implication. I feel like the idea of reasoning through computation is an expression or reinforcement or both of the technocratic post-political ideological hegemony. I am not sure if this is what the authors says, but that was my semi-epiphany: computers don’t take over humans because they think like us, but because we started to think like them (technocratic, essentially a variation of supply-demand thinking).
From my own professional experience, the McKinsey approach to any social problem (public health in Africa, food franchise in the west, running a refugee camp) is based on precisely this idea of computing maximum efficiency and effectiveness based on quantifiable input data (dividing complexity into isolated process units that can be improved against KPIs) – this kind of development work could soon or probably already be undertaken by computers/ AI. Not that I understand a lot about this but this kind of technocratic thinking doesn’t need humans anymore, it doesn’t need critical reflection or normative choices. I was thinking that especially today’s apolitical humanitarian responses– if you add to this GPS and other data – could be easily designed by computers, then dispatching and tracking the required supplies from the most efficient hub through drones. I can totally see this replacing NGOs trying to figure out stuff (essentially logistics stuff – who needs what quantity where and when) that technology could probably solve in tens of seconds and that Amazon and General Motors have figured out decades ago. Donors or crowd funders could then push a button whether they want the drones to dispatch or not or to whom. The future of humanitarian aid. Imagine the amount of time saved in coordination meetings 😊 I know I am VERY late in the game but I can kind of see where all this 21st century is headed.
From my own professional experience, the McKinsey approach to any social problem (public health in Africa, food franchise in the west, running a refugee camp) is based on precisely this idea of computing maximum efficiency and effectiveness based on quantifiable input data (dividing complexity into isolated process units that can be improved against KPIs) – this kind of development work could soon or probably already be undertaken by computers/ AI. Not that I understand a lot about this but this kind of technocratic thinking doesn’t need humans anymore, it doesn’t need critical reflection or normative choices. I was thinking that especially today’s apolitical humanitarian responses– if you add to this GPS and other data – could be easily designed by computers, then dispatching and tracking the required supplies from the most efficient hub through drones. I can totally see this replacing NGOs trying to figure out stuff (essentially logistics stuff – who needs what quantity where and when) that technology could probably solve in tens of seconds and that Amazon and General Motors have figured out decades ago. Donors or crowd funders could then push a button whether they want the drones to dispatch or not or to whom. The future of humanitarian aid. Imagine the amount of time saved in coordination meetings 😊 I know I am VERY late in the game but I can kind of see where all this 21st century is headed.
August 18, 2025
Interesting take on AI and the current state of technology - definitely worth reading.
February 28, 2021
Pfff, I gave up.
I didn't finish it, although I really attempted to complete it. Boring, disappointing, hardly new info is developed.
This could be a blog post.
I didn't finish it, although I really attempted to complete it. Boring, disappointing, hardly new info is developed.
This could be a blog post.
November 29, 2022
ممتع جدا
يحتاج عدة مرات لفهمه
ارشحه كثيرا
موجود في اكشاك الصحافة بمصر بسعر ١٥ج مصري
يحتاج عدة مرات لفهمه
ارشحه كثيرا
موجود في اكشاك الصحافة بمصر بسعر ١٥ج مصري
March 17, 2020
From social media addiction to fake news to mass surveillance, new technologies have changed our lives, our societies, and even our planet – often, in ways we hadn’t initially anticipated.
Once hailed as the harbingers of a new enlightenment, the internet and other important tools of our networked world seem to have engendered new genres of social and political division, violence and abuse, misinformation and conspiracy theory. Amidst a sea of information, we seem to be plunging into a new dark age: a period where we are able to gather more and more data on our complex world, and yet seem to understand less and less of it.
Now more than ever, we need to learn to think critically through all the uncertainty. We need to investigate the technologies that shape our world and our thinking, and examine where they came from, how they function, and who they serve. These blinks will lay bare some of the vast and unexpected ways that new technologies affect us — and why and how they came to do so.
Conspiracy theories provide the comfort of simple narratives in a complex world.
Since the beginning of history, humans have been inclined to spin complex events into simple stories to make sense of the world. In a way, our conception of history is, itself, an example of oversimplification.
Though conspiracy theories provide the comfort of reducing our frightening chaotic world into a simple narrative, these can turn out to be just as frightening.
In order to live with meaning in a new dark age, we need to abandon computational optimism and embrace complexity.
British mathematician and architect Clive Humby was hinting at the drawbacks of computation when he coined the phrase “data is the new oil” in 2006. In his original statement, he went on to explain that like oil, data can’t be used in its unrefined state. In order to be of value it needs to be broken down and analyzed.
Instead of focusing on collecting progressively more data in order to predict increasingly complex events, we need to learn to think consciously and critically about where our data is coming from, what it's being used for, and who owns it. We need to closely examine the global technological networks that produce and use this data, and the ways we can change them for the better. This is the only way we can bring meaning to this new dark age of our making.
Final Summary
While new technologies of the digital age allow us to connect, collect and share information, they’re ushering us into a new dark age, where the world seems more complex and confusing than ever before. This is because, as examples from early computing, history, and science demonstrate, more data doesn’t always produce better results. Moreover, when new technologies are used for capitalist aims, they tend to perpetuate and deepen existing power structures. That’s why, if we want to live meaningfully in the present, we need to start questioning the origin, function, and purpose of our technologies.
.....
summary from Blinkist.com
Once hailed as the harbingers of a new enlightenment, the internet and other important tools of our networked world seem to have engendered new genres of social and political division, violence and abuse, misinformation and conspiracy theory. Amidst a sea of information, we seem to be plunging into a new dark age: a period where we are able to gather more and more data on our complex world, and yet seem to understand less and less of it.
Now more than ever, we need to learn to think critically through all the uncertainty. We need to investigate the technologies that shape our world and our thinking, and examine where they came from, how they function, and who they serve. These blinks will lay bare some of the vast and unexpected ways that new technologies affect us — and why and how they came to do so.
Conspiracy theories provide the comfort of simple narratives in a complex world.
Since the beginning of history, humans have been inclined to spin complex events into simple stories to make sense of the world. In a way, our conception of history is, itself, an example of oversimplification.
Though conspiracy theories provide the comfort of reducing our frightening chaotic world into a simple narrative, these can turn out to be just as frightening.
In order to live with meaning in a new dark age, we need to abandon computational optimism and embrace complexity.
British mathematician and architect Clive Humby was hinting at the drawbacks of computation when he coined the phrase “data is the new oil” in 2006. In his original statement, he went on to explain that like oil, data can’t be used in its unrefined state. In order to be of value it needs to be broken down and analyzed.
Instead of focusing on collecting progressively more data in order to predict increasingly complex events, we need to learn to think consciously and critically about where our data is coming from, what it's being used for, and who owns it. We need to closely examine the global technological networks that produce and use this data, and the ways we can change them for the better. This is the only way we can bring meaning to this new dark age of our making.
Final Summary
While new technologies of the digital age allow us to connect, collect and share information, they’re ushering us into a new dark age, where the world seems more complex and confusing than ever before. This is because, as examples from early computing, history, and science demonstrate, more data doesn’t always produce better results. Moreover, when new technologies are used for capitalist aims, they tend to perpetuate and deepen existing power structures. That’s why, if we want to live meaningfully in the present, we need to start questioning the origin, function, and purpose of our technologies.
.....
summary from Blinkist.com
February 17, 2019
If the Talking Cricket would write a book about information technology, this would be it.
Divided in thematic chapters, each one on a specific view/topic on how information systems is transforming the world and ourselves, the author presents a critical reflection on the dangers of the optimistic view of technology as the panacea for all problems.
From climate change to biased AI or Twitter automatic account bots driving discussions and results on Brexit and US elections, the book presents a world of fast changes, driven by opaque technology whose motivations are not clear, and the need to rethink technology itself.
This is not a book for anyone looking for answers, there aren’t easy ones for these topics. If you’re looking for that type of book, look somewhere else.
This is a book about awareness.
I will definitely have a conversation with my daughters about YouTube’s recommendation algorithm and the motivations behind it.
A final note, would suggest reading with digital support, the references along the book are a valuable source of complementary information.
Highly recommended.
Divided in thematic chapters, each one on a specific view/topic on how information systems is transforming the world and ourselves, the author presents a critical reflection on the dangers of the optimistic view of technology as the panacea for all problems.
From climate change to biased AI or Twitter automatic account bots driving discussions and results on Brexit and US elections, the book presents a world of fast changes, driven by opaque technology whose motivations are not clear, and the need to rethink technology itself.
This is not a book for anyone looking for answers, there aren’t easy ones for these topics. If you’re looking for that type of book, look somewhere else.
This is a book about awareness.
I will definitely have a conversation with my daughters about YouTube’s recommendation algorithm and the motivations behind it.
A final note, would suggest reading with digital support, the references along the book are a valuable source of complementary information.
Highly recommended.
July 31, 2020
As hellish as it is brilliant. Some kind of information age necronomicon which has left me checking flight scanners and searching for the monolithic, unmarked data centres of Slough.
The book examines the simultaneous unwieldiness and un-accountability of information technologies as they grow ever into our lives: the duality of their invisibility and daunting physicality, their opacity and transparency. Spanning (among others) climate change, finance-capitalism and the military industrial complex, Bridle stares into the abyss of crisis while at each stage unearthing flashes of radical, even Utopian, potential.
This is to my knowledge the best critical analysis of the internet age and a wildly necessary addendum to a data poisoned world.
The book examines the simultaneous unwieldiness and un-accountability of information technologies as they grow ever into our lives: the duality of their invisibility and daunting physicality, their opacity and transparency. Spanning (among others) climate change, finance-capitalism and the military industrial complex, Bridle stares into the abyss of crisis while at each stage unearthing flashes of radical, even Utopian, potential.
This is to my knowledge the best critical analysis of the internet age and a wildly necessary addendum to a data poisoned world.
November 1, 2021
v v good
February 6, 2020
Each chapter starts with a c-word; Chasm, Computation, Climate etc. Sometimes the c-word seemed an appropriate label, sometimes another c-word would have been better; Capital instead of Complexity, Covert ops instead of Complicity. Sometimes the c-word seems to have no connection with the chapter at all: Concurrency was largely about the doleful effects of abandoning toddlers in front of Youtube (perhaps something the busy parent and writer is occassionally forced to do). I wondered if the c-words were a joke, that Bridle had submitted his chapters to an AI system which 'read' them and selected a c-word for the chapter name. It would be an ironic example of abandoning his own agency to an algorithm. Ha-ha, what a c-word.
I have another c-word - Compendium - which summarises what is good and bad about this book. It is a compendium of tech related 'horror' stories, techtrasophes, instances where technology facilitates human folly and cruelty. In this compendium you will find nothing positive for human life that is a consequence of the integration of computation and communications technology. However, all the instances of IT horror here are interesting, diversely sourced, well presented, and occassionally lit with dark humour.
But there is, disappointly, no argument that technology is leading us into a new dark age. It's not even clear what the nature of this new dark age is, apart from Bridle's relentless focus on the negative. He seems to be saying, the technology is here; it has these bad effects; it will get worse. Early on, he seemed to be suggesting that the technology had some sort of malign agency of its own. Later he seems to settle down to the more reasonable notion that the ill effects are the unintended consequences of unguarded deployment of these technologies. Here I can agree with him, because this been a recurrent historical feature of the deployment of any technology. The invention of writing led to a decline in the massive inventories humans used to carry in their memories, ask any Papua New Guinean. But Bridle's take on history is that it travels in straight lines towards catastrophre - economic exploitation, genocide, child abuse and climate collapse - there is no feedback, there is no reflexivity.
I've been a teacher for the duration of this technological revolution. It's never been easier for me to put together media and information rich lessons which engage and are responsive to my students. This is my good day-to-day experience of Bridle's bad technology. I appreciate that for example, this technology may have been exploited to undermine the debate over Brexit, an outcome which is very negative for me as an EU resident UKer. But this outcome seems to be a result of a demographic crisis as much as a technological one. I remain confident that the generation to be raised on this technology will be inherently more circumspect in its use, as the earlier one that was raised on mainstream television now suspects that technology. We can't go back to edited and compiled information from trusted sources, we have to learn to edit and compile for ourselves, and we have to decide what and why we trust. This is not a new dark age, but a new learning curve.
I have another c-word - Compendium - which summarises what is good and bad about this book. It is a compendium of tech related 'horror' stories, techtrasophes, instances where technology facilitates human folly and cruelty. In this compendium you will find nothing positive for human life that is a consequence of the integration of computation and communications technology. However, all the instances of IT horror here are interesting, diversely sourced, well presented, and occassionally lit with dark humour.
But there is, disappointly, no argument that technology is leading us into a new dark age. It's not even clear what the nature of this new dark age is, apart from Bridle's relentless focus on the negative. He seems to be saying, the technology is here; it has these bad effects; it will get worse. Early on, he seemed to be suggesting that the technology had some sort of malign agency of its own. Later he seems to settle down to the more reasonable notion that the ill effects are the unintended consequences of unguarded deployment of these technologies. Here I can agree with him, because this been a recurrent historical feature of the deployment of any technology. The invention of writing led to a decline in the massive inventories humans used to carry in their memories, ask any Papua New Guinean. But Bridle's take on history is that it travels in straight lines towards catastrophre - economic exploitation, genocide, child abuse and climate collapse - there is no feedback, there is no reflexivity.
I've been a teacher for the duration of this technological revolution. It's never been easier for me to put together media and information rich lessons which engage and are responsive to my students. This is my good day-to-day experience of Bridle's bad technology. I appreciate that for example, this technology may have been exploited to undermine the debate over Brexit, an outcome which is very negative for me as an EU resident UKer. But this outcome seems to be a result of a demographic crisis as much as a technological one. I remain confident that the generation to be raised on this technology will be inherently more circumspect in its use, as the earlier one that was raised on mainstream television now suspects that technology. We can't go back to edited and compiled information from trusted sources, we have to learn to edit and compile for ourselves, and we have to decide what and why we trust. This is not a new dark age, but a new learning curve.
March 16, 2020
New Dark Age explores how humans amidst a sea of information seem to be plunging into a new dark age; ranging in topics from climate change to mass surveillance to child abuse, New Dark Age reveals some of the darker sides of the digital age.
The author examines that big data fallacy that encourages quantity over quality is palpable in all of science. While the number of scientific studies, journals, and papers has been steadily increasing over the past decades, so has the number of mistakes, plagiarism and fraud in scientific research. Experts are increasingly talking about the replication crisis of modern science. This refers to the fact that when many scientific studies are conducted a second time by a different group of researchers, they cannot reproduce the original results.
In 2006, at Zeitgeist conference, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt made a startling claim. If camera phones had been around in 1994, the horrifying Rwandan genocide of that year would never have happened, because people would have been able to film and share news about the atrocities taking place.
It sounds convincing. But the author takes his readers to analyze the situation in other way. Just take a closer look at Schmidt’s example of the Rwandan genocide. In 1994, over the course of 100 days, an estimated one million Rwandans were murdered in a brutal massacre spurred on by inter-ethnic tensions, while the rest of the world stood by and did nothing — supposedly, because they didn’t know about it.
But since then, investigations have revealed that several NGOs, foreign embassies, and the UN were closely monitoring the situation. The US government, for example, was tracking the developments via high-resolution satellite pictures. Contrary to what Schmidt suggests, the genocide in Rwanda was not abetted by a lack of knowing, but instead by a lack of doing.
It means data alone is not the solution rather it is will of those at helm of affairs can change the situation other way around.
However, new technologies of the digital age allow us to connect, collect and share information, they’re ushering us into a new dark age, where the world seems more complex and confusing than ever before. This is because, as examples from early computing, history, and science demonstrate, more data doesn’t always produce better results. Moreover, when new technologies are used for capitalist aims, they tend to perpetuate and deepen existing power structures. That’s why, if we want to live meaningfully in the present, we need to start questioning the origin, function, and purpose of our technologies.
The author examines that big data fallacy that encourages quantity over quality is palpable in all of science. While the number of scientific studies, journals, and papers has been steadily increasing over the past decades, so has the number of mistakes, plagiarism and fraud in scientific research. Experts are increasingly talking about the replication crisis of modern science. This refers to the fact that when many scientific studies are conducted a second time by a different group of researchers, they cannot reproduce the original results.
In 2006, at Zeitgeist conference, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt made a startling claim. If camera phones had been around in 1994, the horrifying Rwandan genocide of that year would never have happened, because people would have been able to film and share news about the atrocities taking place.
It sounds convincing. But the author takes his readers to analyze the situation in other way. Just take a closer look at Schmidt’s example of the Rwandan genocide. In 1994, over the course of 100 days, an estimated one million Rwandans were murdered in a brutal massacre spurred on by inter-ethnic tensions, while the rest of the world stood by and did nothing — supposedly, because they didn’t know about it.
But since then, investigations have revealed that several NGOs, foreign embassies, and the UN were closely monitoring the situation. The US government, for example, was tracking the developments via high-resolution satellite pictures. Contrary to what Schmidt suggests, the genocide in Rwanda was not abetted by a lack of knowing, but instead by a lack of doing.
It means data alone is not the solution rather it is will of those at helm of affairs can change the situation other way around.
However, new technologies of the digital age allow us to connect, collect and share information, they’re ushering us into a new dark age, where the world seems more complex and confusing than ever before. This is because, as examples from early computing, history, and science demonstrate, more data doesn’t always produce better results. Moreover, when new technologies are used for capitalist aims, they tend to perpetuate and deepen existing power structures. That’s why, if we want to live meaningfully in the present, we need to start questioning the origin, function, and purpose of our technologies.
December 23, 2024
I've had this book on my reading list for many years and had very much been looking forward to reading it. The introduction started out fairly well, setting the stage for Bridle's argument that many technologists are blind to the side effects of their creations and assume that the remedy to negative effects that technology causes is to implement more technology. ("Computational thinking", Bridle called it.) Fair enough, and I prepared myself for him to make arguments on that basis.
Unfortunately, the rest of the book was a completely unfocused polemic that strayed extremely far from his original stated purpose. In many places, it simply came across as a screed that had little relationship to "computational thinking", as Bridle takes the occasion to trot out every sin incurred by governments and other sources of power: British colonial abuses in Kenya, mass surveillance by the NSA, non-renewable resource extraction by dominant corporations, climate change, and so on. The worst part is that Bridle doesn't even try to make even a meager attempt to tie any of this back to his original thesis; he's enjoying himself too much, speaking "truth to power", to bother. It's like the whole purpose of him writing any of this down was to establish his socialist bona fides in the service of... what, exactly? Admission to the Noam Chomsky school of left-wing linguistics? It's even worse than Zeynep Tüfekçi's writing; as much of a doomsayer she is, at least she has some original thought, whereas Bridle has essentially written a lit review of a century's worth of oppression without adding much to the conversation.
It's incredibly disappointing because of what this book could have been: an accessible primer to help the everyman understand and push back against billionaires who think that more uncontrolled innovation is the answer to everything. On top of everything else I mentioned, "accessible" it is not; Bridle can't help himself, using the most obscure ten-dollar words and convoluted academic phraseology. Even if he'd hewed plainly to his thesis, his elitist style would still have sunk the book and reinforced, for the layperson, that folks who question the supremacy of technology are just dissatisfied ivory tower academics that have nothing useful to say to them. The book is overall just sad because of the gap between what it is and what it ought to have been.
Unfortunately, the rest of the book was a completely unfocused polemic that strayed extremely far from his original stated purpose. In many places, it simply came across as a screed that had little relationship to "computational thinking", as Bridle takes the occasion to trot out every sin incurred by governments and other sources of power: British colonial abuses in Kenya, mass surveillance by the NSA, non-renewable resource extraction by dominant corporations, climate change, and so on. The worst part is that Bridle doesn't even try to make even a meager attempt to tie any of this back to his original thesis; he's enjoying himself too much, speaking "truth to power", to bother. It's like the whole purpose of him writing any of this down was to establish his socialist bona fides in the service of... what, exactly? Admission to the Noam Chomsky school of left-wing linguistics? It's even worse than Zeynep Tüfekçi's writing; as much of a doomsayer she is, at least she has some original thought, whereas Bridle has essentially written a lit review of a century's worth of oppression without adding much to the conversation.
It's incredibly disappointing because of what this book could have been: an accessible primer to help the everyman understand and push back against billionaires who think that more uncontrolled innovation is the answer to everything. On top of everything else I mentioned, "accessible" it is not; Bridle can't help himself, using the most obscure ten-dollar words and convoluted academic phraseology. Even if he'd hewed plainly to his thesis, his elitist style would still have sunk the book and reinforced, for the layperson, that folks who question the supremacy of technology are just dissatisfied ivory tower academics that have nothing useful to say to them. The book is overall just sad because of the gap between what it is and what it ought to have been.
November 21, 2023
This book started out somewhat interesting, with chapters 1 and 2 laying out an analytical framework for thinking about computation and data, information glut, authenticity, and individuality. However there are some basic factual errors, which only collect and compound as the book goes on; e.g. in chapter 1: "The greatest signifying quality of the network is its lack of single, solid intent. Nobody set out to create the network, or its greatest built exemplar, the internet." – this is not true, inter-networking was a deliberate evolution of campus network computing. The very protocols on which the internet run codify the intention that the author asserts is lacking. But the book takes a turn for the worse starting in chapter 3. The author attempts to link climate-change induced loss of physical science information (e.g. melting ice cores) to the digital dark age, but I don’t think the metaphor is fully bridged. And while there is a link between computational energy and climate, this is not fully explored. As the book progresses, it mostly devolves into popular tropes on the social ills of technology. This is not to say that the author’s suppositions are disagreeable, but the theoretical lens that was laid out in chapters 1 and 2 is completely disregarded. Occasionally a reference to the “digital dark age” is mixed in, but there is no real argument linking it back to the thesis.
Ultimately this book suffers from not being rigorous. The early chapters set the expectation of a scholarly work, but there is little sourcing and even less theoretical analysis. Most of the “evidence” presented in the book is anecdata. And while I won’t fault the author for the title of the book, not seeking to draw any comparison to history is a serious failing. Even ignoring the medieval dark ages, there are several other periods of information history that would be apt (printing press, trains, radio and telegraph) but were left un-mined in this work.
Ultimately this book suffers from not being rigorous. The early chapters set the expectation of a scholarly work, but there is little sourcing and even less theoretical analysis. Most of the “evidence” presented in the book is anecdata. And while I won’t fault the author for the title of the book, not seeking to draw any comparison to history is a serious failing. Even ignoring the medieval dark ages, there are several other periods of information history that would be apt (printing press, trains, radio and telegraph) but were left un-mined in this work.
November 14, 2019
At the heart of what James Bridle calls the New Dark Age is the consolidation of wealth and power by an ever-shrinking group of people. The mechanics of that consolidation have become increasingly hidden inside cryptic algorithms and underground cables that span the entire globe. All the while, we're assured the world is getting better; technology will rescue us from environmental disaster, and life will become more convenient.
The truth is that the Internet has overloaded us with information – so much that it's become impossible to discern fiction from reality. We're exhausted and disillusioned from trying. So it's understandable when we welcome the assistance of algorithms to offload some of that cognitive work, right? Why research the media we consume when an algorithm already has a suggestion? Why familiarize ourselves with a city when GPS can tell us exactly how to get to our next destination? Why remember anything we learn when we can look it up instantly?
It seems harmless, but it's a slippery slope down a completely dark and unlit path. The darkness is intentional; it prevents us from seeing who benefits from the data we exchange for convenience. It also prevents us from seeing the destruction it has brought to our environment, our social lives, our emotional wellbeing, our creativity, and our freedom.
There is so much more I'd like to say, but I don't have time to write it, and you don't have time to read it. Amazon probably owns this review now too, so you shouldn't trust it. Welcome to the New Dark Age.
The truth is that the Internet has overloaded us with information – so much that it's become impossible to discern fiction from reality. We're exhausted and disillusioned from trying. So it's understandable when we welcome the assistance of algorithms to offload some of that cognitive work, right? Why research the media we consume when an algorithm already has a suggestion? Why familiarize ourselves with a city when GPS can tell us exactly how to get to our next destination? Why remember anything we learn when we can look it up instantly?
It seems harmless, but it's a slippery slope down a completely dark and unlit path. The darkness is intentional; it prevents us from seeing who benefits from the data we exchange for convenience. It also prevents us from seeing the destruction it has brought to our environment, our social lives, our emotional wellbeing, our creativity, and our freedom.
There is so much more I'd like to say, but I don't have time to write it, and you don't have time to read it. Amazon probably owns this review now too, so you shouldn't trust it. Welcome to the New Dark Age.
November 17, 2022
أول خطوة أخطوها تجاه سلسلة عالم المعرفة وأول كتاب أقرأه من مختاراتهم الفريدة والحقيقي أنا فخور بيهم، فخور ان كتاب لا تتعدى تكلفته دولار واحد ( وأقل من دولار كمان لأني شاريه ب 15 جنيه والدولار دلوقتي عدى ال 25) موجود ف أقرب مكان تقدر تشترى منه مطبوعات ورقية: عند بتاع الجرايد، يعني مش محتاج تروح مكتبة بعيدة عنك أو تتحمل تكلفة الكتب اللي أسعارها عالية جدًا، كل اللي عليك انك تنزل من بيتك، تروح عند بتاع الجرايد، تجيب الكتاب وتقعد تقرأ.. بس كده.
بالنسبة للكتاب اللي معانا، فهو جيد جدًا، ومفيد، ومخيف في نفس الوقت! لدرجة ان مجرد رؤيتك لبعض مقاطع يوتيوب مخصصة للأطفال عن أصابع بتغني و ترقص هيخليك تشعر بالغرابة والحذر! (دي آخر صورة في ذهني حاليًا بعد ما أنهيت الكتاب)
أعجبتني الفصول اللي بتتكلم عن المناخ وال gps، والمؤامرة، و الجزئية الخاصة باستخدام التقانة في بناء صور للأحلام والخيال مثلًا أو التأثير على الحملات الانتخابة أو نشر أخبار وإشاعات قد تؤدي إلى حروب أهلية.
يعيب الكتاب في نظري سوء ترتيب المواضيع في بعض الأحيان، والتكرار، والتطويل في أمور جانبية (وإن كانت بغرض إيصال المعني كاملًا إلا إنه كان يمكن إيجازها)
بالنسبة للكتاب اللي معانا، فهو جيد جدًا، ومفيد، ومخيف في نفس الوقت! لدرجة ان مجرد رؤيتك لبعض مقاطع يوتيوب مخصصة للأطفال عن أصابع بتغني و ترقص هيخليك تشعر بالغرابة والحذر! (دي آخر صورة في ذهني حاليًا بعد ما أنهيت الكتاب)
أعجبتني الفصول اللي بتتكلم عن المناخ وال gps، والمؤامرة، و الجزئية الخاصة باستخدام التقانة في بناء صور للأحلام والخيال مثلًا أو التأثير على الحملات الانتخابة أو نشر أخبار وإشاعات قد تؤدي إلى حروب أهلية.
يعيب الكتاب في نظري سوء ترتيب المواضيع في بعض الأحيان، والتكرار، والتطويل في أمور جانبية (وإن كانت بغرض إيصال المعني كاملًا إلا إنه كان يمكن إيجازها)
July 31, 2019
Apesar do título apocalíptico, o livro traz um tom de mobilização ao invés de pessimismo frente à catástrofe que nos espera. Dividido em 10 capítulos, ele meio que apresenta do “estado da arte” de agentes que nos levariam a essa nova era da escuridão - algoritmos, caos climático, excesso de informação, vigilância constante, super acumulação de dados (big data), etc. Eu esperava um pouco mais de teoria. O livro parece mais um compilado de artigos do que uma reflexão aprofundada sobre os temas citados - o que contradiz a própria ideia do autor de que não nos falta conhecimento, mas sim ação. Apesar disso, no conjunto dos capítulos, a obra apresenta um panorama muito bom sobre os desafios que nos avizinham e ensaia a quebra de um paradigma iluminista (o progresso pela busca de conhecimento) para outro no qual a informação importa mais pela quantidade do que pelo seu teor.
February 16, 2019
The only positive thing I can say about this book is that it's short. While the author (mostly) does an adequate job of pointing out subjects worth thinking about, every conclusion he reaches is wrong. What he calls computational thinking is at the basis of every evil that plagues human society, no matter how much he has to squeeze and mutilate the facts. While the earlier chapters at least are written in an understandable, if jargon-filled style, the latter chapters (especially chapters 9 and 10) are barely intelligible.
Don't waste your time.
Don't waste your time.
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