technology

Tell The Machine Goodnight

By Katie Williams
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Jed D.
Sep 16, 2019

What if a machine could tell you how to be happy?  What if your results could be manipulated?  What if you had to do something illegal, immoral, or unethical to achieve happiness?  These are a few of the questions posed in the speculative fiction novel Tell the Machine Goodnight, by Katie Williams.  Set in 2035, our protagonist Pearl works for a Facebook or Google-like tech organization, Apricity, whose name means "the warmth of the sun during winter".  Businesses include Apricty readings as a benefit. along with insurance and retirement packages.  Apricity is brought in to help victims of

Feb 20, 2018

After writing about the struggles of Gen X and Millennials in 2006's Generation Me, and the rise of society-wide obsession with self in 2009's Narcissism Epidemic, Dr. Twenge then set her sights on a new, decidedly different, group of young people.

A fitting moniker for those born from the mid-1990s to 2000s, "iGen"-- a term coined by the author, herself -- refers to a generation which has never known a world without the personal technology that has rapidly become a large part of our lives. A researcher with over two decades of experience, Twenge's work in iGen seeks to not only examine and

To Siri With Love: A Mother, Her Autistic Son, and the Kindness of Machines

By Judith Newman
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Lisa J.
Oct 26, 2017

Beginning when Gus and his twin brother were born and continuing to the present, Newman shares her sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and always insightful and upbeat recollections of their lives. She touches on many of the issues with autism, but To Siri With Love is not a "how to" book. It is a positive, yet honest look into one family's journey with autism, and among others, how technology, especially Siri, is helpful to Gus. Most helpful is Siri's ability to talk with Gus ad nauseam about whatever he is interested in at the time, be it trains and train schedules, erosion, or climate change

Alone Together

By Sherry Turkle

Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Oct 3, 2017

As one who did not grow up with the internet, I was interested to see what Turkle's opinion is on where we began and where we currently are concerning the internet and how it has changed us.

Turkle’s writing is wonderfully readable and she has done a great job of translating facts and statistics into tangible, real-life scenarios we can all relate to in one way or another. One of the more interesting points Turkle makes in Alone Together, is that the average person might think with the explosion of an ever increasingly sophisticated technology, coupled with sites like Facebook and Twitter

Shadow Catcher

By James R. Hannibal

Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Oct 7, 2014

James R. Hannibal’s novel titled Shadow Catcher reads like a Clancy thriller.

Nick Baron is an Air Force Major in charge of a failed B-2 stealth bomber mission that lands the fighter jet at the bottom of the Persian Gulf. Nick leads his Triple Chase team to find and dispose of the lost bomber before the enemy can get their hands on it.

Danger lurks around the corner as a US soldier sends a distress signal from the deep interior region of China, another far off country.  The only plane that can handle this mission is the Shadow Catcher, a highly-equipped, state of the art fighter plane.

This

Apr 7, 2011

Experimental sci-fi author Cory Doctorow’s new project is a self-published, print-on-demand collection of short stories called With a Little Help: an Experiment in Publishing.  The stories revolve around technology; its impacts, its misuses, and its efforts to one day take control.

Not only are the stories brilliant, his process is intriguing: readers are able to go into an online system where you can report typos and other errors on his website, www.craphound.com.  Doctorow then uses the tips to fix the errors and credit the specific reader who caught them in subsequent print runs… truly

Oct 16, 2008

Marcus is intelligent and tech savvy enough to thwart the efforts of his school administrators who keep tabs on his activities. But when terrorists attack San Francisco while Marcus is skipping class with his friends, his whereabouts make him suspect and he is picked up by Homeland Security.

As fear grips the city, Marcus is dismayed at how easily people, including his liberal parents, are willing to sacrifice their personal liberties for a false sense of security. Marcus utilizes his knowledge of technology to embark on an underground campaign against Homeland Security.

Doctorow effectively