Sunday, April 20, 2008

Second Self






In The Second SelfComputers and the Human Spirit by Turkle Sherry, author looks at the computer as a part of our social and psychlogical lives. She talks about technology which changes people's mind and their relationship with the world. The question we should face is What kind of people are we becoming? She talks to children, young people as well as with adults. She asks children if computers have own mind and what is life, what happens when people consider the computer as a model of human mind? Experts argue whether or not computers will become 'artificial intelligences', capable of antonomous, humanlike thought. She talks to hackers as well. Hackers have own culture and we can find a lot of hacker's thoughts about their lives in the book. People built strong relationship with mashines, "When my Palm crashed, it was like a death. I thought I had lost my mind." http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=10515 . This book is very good written. I very like direct speeches of different kind of people. It makes book very interesting and unusual.