Books that helped me better understand technology

When my grandfather died a few years ago, he was almost 95. At the time, it got me thinking about the rapid change in technology he would have seen over his lifetime. He was born in 1927, and the big new communication technology of the time would have been radio, though household use of radio wouldn’t become widespread until the late 1930’s. Then television would have taken off in the mid-1950’s. Then finally, up here anyway, the internet in the late 1990’s (earlier the closer you were to urban areas). That’s 3 massive shifts in communication technology in a lifetime.

When I think of my lifetime, being born in 1981, radio and television were pretty much ubiquitous. Internet entered my life in my late teens, social media in my 20’s, smartphones in my 30’s, and now the large language models that power so-called AI have become a feature of my 40’s. While the shift doesn’t feel quite as massive as the progression of radio to television to internet that my grandparents would have experienced, each decade has come with a new technology that has altered our day-to-day lives.

Against this backdrop of constant change, we have a piece of technology that has changed very little – the book. The book has been around in some form or another for over 1000 years. As other technologies have threatened to usurp it, the book remains stubbornly relevant today. Stephen Fry once tweeted something along the lines of “Books are no more threatened by e-books than stairs by elevators.” If you watch sci-fi movies and television shows, even amongst the most imaginative futuristic technology, a book inevitably shows up (thank you, Captain Picard).

When I write these columns, I do a great deal of research using online articles, podcasts, and videos to understand what I’m writing about. However, some of the deeper insights about technology I’ve found have been from books. Some of these books have been what I fondly call dead-tree editions, but audiobooks are a very useful and accessible format that I take advantage of. Briefly, here are some books that have helped shape my views and understanding of technology when it comes to it’s impact on humans.

Ruined by Design by Mike Monteiro (2019) is a call to designers to abide by a professional code of ethics. Throughout the book Monteiro argues that many injustices could have been avoided if the designers of the technologies that helped facilitate those injustices had taken an ethics-based approach. Even though the book speaks directly to designers, it’s written in plain enough language that anyone interested can pick it up and learn about how technology is not neutral, how biases and prejudices are baked into our technology, and how many of the negative impacts of certain technologies aren’t unfortunate accidents but the consequence of conscious design decisions.

Magazine by Jeff Jarvis (2023) is a history and commentary on the magazine. Jarvis takes the reader from the magazine’s beginnings in the coffee houses of Europe, through its peak in the 20th century, and finally the cataclysmic effect of the internet that has all but destroyed it. Magazine helped me better understand the driving force that internet advertising has on how our technology is currently progressing. While the book may focus on the magazine, its lessons are applicable to social media, clickbait, and any technology that depends on ads.

Blood in the Machine by Brian Merchant (2023) details the first rebellion against “Big Tech”, the Luddite uprising in 19th century England. Merchant shows us how similar the tech entrepreneurs of the industrial revolution were to the tech billionaires of today. Picking a few key figures to follow through the book (including Mary Shelley author of Frankenstein) he details how the Luddite uprising wasn’t about an aversion to technology, but a fight against exploitation by technology.

How to be Perfect by Michael Schur (2022) isn’t about technology. Rather, this book is essentially the research that Schur did for his television series The Good Place, a comedy series that tricked its audience into learning about moral philosophy – and liking it. When talking about ethics in technology, it’s good to have at least a bit of an introduction to ethics in general. Written without self-importance but with plenty of tongueWhen my grandfather died a few years ago, he was almost 95. At the time, it got me thinking about the rapid change in technology he would have seen over his lifetime. He was born in 1927, and the big new communication technology of the time would have been radio, though household use of radio wouldn’t become widespread until the late 1930’s. Then television would have taken off in the mid-1950’s. Then finally, up here anyway, the internet in the late 1990’s (earlier the closer you were to urban areas). That’s 3 massive shifts in communication technology in a lifetime.

When I think of my lifetime, being born in 1981, radio and television were pretty much ubiquitous. Internet entered my life in my late teens, social media in my 20’s, smartphones in my 30’s, and now the large language models that power so-called AI have become a feature of my 40’s. While the shift doesn’t feel quite as massive as the progression of radio to television to internet that my grandparents would have experienced, each decade has come with a new technology that has altered our day-to-day lives.

Against this backdrop of constant change, we have a piece of technology that has changed very little – the book. The book has been around in some form or another for over 1000 years. As other technologies have threatened to usurp it, the book remains stubbornly relevant today. Stephen Fry once tweeted something along the lines of “Books are no more threatened by e-books than stairs by elevators.” If you watch sci-fi movies and television shows, even amongst the most imaginative futuristic technology, a book inevitably shows up (thank you, Captain Picard).

When I write these columns, I do a great deal of research using online articles, podcasts, and videos to understand what I’m writing about. However, some of the deeper insights about technology I’ve found have been from books. Some of these books have been what I fondly call dead-tree editions, but audiobooks are a very useful and accessible format that I take advantage of. Briefly, here are some books that have helped shape my views and understanding of technology when it comes to it’s impact on humans.

Ruined by Design by Mike Monteiro (2019) is a call to designers to abide by a professional code of ethics. Throughout the book Monteiro argues that many injustices could have been avoided if the designers of the technologies that helped facilitate those injustices had taken an ethics-based approach. Even though the book speaks directly to designers, it’s written in plain enough language that anyone interested can pick it up and learn about how technology is not neutral, how biases and prejudices are baked into our technology, and how many of the negative impacts of certain technologies aren’t unfortunate accidents but the consequence of conscious design decisions.

Magazine by Jeff Jarvis (2023) is a history and commentary on the magazine. Jarvis takes the reader from the magazine’s beginnings in the coffee houses of Europe, through its peak in the 20th century, and finally the cataclysmic effect of the internet that has all but destroyed it. Magazine helped me better understand the driving force that internet advertising has on how our technology is currently progressing. While the book may focus on the magazine, its lessons are applicable to social media, clickbait, and any technology that depends on ads.

Blood in the Machine by Brian Merchant (2023) details the first rebellion against “Big Tech”, the Luddite uprising in 19th century England. Merchant shows us how similar the tech entrepreneurs of the industrial revolution were to the tech billionaires of today. Picking a few key figures to follow through the book (including Mary Shelley author of Frankenstein) he details how the Luddite uprising wasn’t about an aversion to technology, but a fight against exploitation by technology.

How to be Perfect by Michael Schur (2022) isn’t about technology. Rather, this book is essentially the research that Schur did for his television series The Good Place, a comedy series that tricked its audience into learning about moral philosophy – and liking it. When talking about ethics in technology, it’s good to have at least a bit of an introduction to ethics in general. Written without self-importance but with plenty of tongue-in-cheek humour, Schur gives an easily digestible introduction to ethics that is easy to apply to our everyday lives.

If you’re taking a break from the information firehose that is your screen these days but want to still engage in some deeper thinking that will help you navigate our current technology landscape, these are all books that will help you accomplish that goal. I know they have helped me sort through some of the wider implications of how technology impacts our lives.-in-cheek humour, Schur gives an easily digestible introduction to ethics that is easy to apply to our everyday lives.

If you’re taking a break from the information firehose that is your screen these days but want to still engage in some deeper thinking that will help you navigate our current technology landscape, these are all books that will help you accomplish that goal. I know they have helped me sort through some of the wider implications of how technology impacts our lives.

Learn more

Ruined by Design. 2019. Mike Monteiro.

Magazine. 2023. Jeff Jarvis.

Blood in the Machine. 2023. Brian Merchant. (Get it at the Haliburton County Public Library)

How to be Perfect. 2022. Michael Schur. (Get it at the Haliburton County Public Library)

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