The Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data
"An intelligent book that struggles honestly with important questions: Is the net turning us into passive knowers? Is it degrading our ability to reason? What can we do about this?" —David Weinberger, Los Angeles Review of Books

We used to say "seeing is believing"; now, googling is believing. With 24/7 access to nearly all of the world’s information at our fingertips, we no longer trek to the library or the encyclopedia shelf in search of answers. We just open our browsers, type in a few keywords and wait for the information to come to us. Now firmly established as a pioneering work of modern philosophy, The Internet of Us has helped revolutionize our understanding of what it means to be human in the digital age. Indeed, demonstrating that knowledge based on reason plays an essential role in society and that there is more to “knowing” than just acquiring information, leading philosopher Michael P. Lynch shows how our digital way of life makes us value some ways of processing information over others, and thus risks distorting the greatest traits of mankind. Charting a path from Plato’s cave to Google Glass, the result is a necessary guide on how to navigate the philosophical quagmire that is the "Internet of Things."

1121986314
The Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data
"An intelligent book that struggles honestly with important questions: Is the net turning us into passive knowers? Is it degrading our ability to reason? What can we do about this?" —David Weinberger, Los Angeles Review of Books

We used to say "seeing is believing"; now, googling is believing. With 24/7 access to nearly all of the world’s information at our fingertips, we no longer trek to the library or the encyclopedia shelf in search of answers. We just open our browsers, type in a few keywords and wait for the information to come to us. Now firmly established as a pioneering work of modern philosophy, The Internet of Us has helped revolutionize our understanding of what it means to be human in the digital age. Indeed, demonstrating that knowledge based on reason plays an essential role in society and that there is more to “knowing” than just acquiring information, leading philosopher Michael P. Lynch shows how our digital way of life makes us value some ways of processing information over others, and thus risks distorting the greatest traits of mankind. Charting a path from Plato’s cave to Google Glass, the result is a necessary guide on how to navigate the philosophical quagmire that is the "Internet of Things."

16.95 In Stock
The Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data

The Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data

by Michael P. Lynch
The Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data

The Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data

by Michael P. Lynch

Paperback(Reprint)

$16.95 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Ships in 1-2 days
  • PICK UP IN STORE

    Your local store may have stock of this item.

Related collections and offers


Overview

"An intelligent book that struggles honestly with important questions: Is the net turning us into passive knowers? Is it degrading our ability to reason? What can we do about this?" —David Weinberger, Los Angeles Review of Books

We used to say "seeing is believing"; now, googling is believing. With 24/7 access to nearly all of the world’s information at our fingertips, we no longer trek to the library or the encyclopedia shelf in search of answers. We just open our browsers, type in a few keywords and wait for the information to come to us. Now firmly established as a pioneering work of modern philosophy, The Internet of Us has helped revolutionize our understanding of what it means to be human in the digital age. Indeed, demonstrating that knowledge based on reason plays an essential role in society and that there is more to “knowing” than just acquiring information, leading philosopher Michael P. Lynch shows how our digital way of life makes us value some ways of processing information over others, and thus risks distorting the greatest traits of mankind. Charting a path from Plato’s cave to Google Glass, the result is a necessary guide on how to navigate the philosophical quagmire that is the "Internet of Things."


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781631492778
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date: 05/09/2017
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 256
Sales rank: 932,291
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Michael P. Lynch is Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and director of the Humanities Institute at the University of Connecticut. His previous books include True to Life and The Internet of Us.

Table of Contents

Preface xv

Part 1 The New Old Problems of Knowledge

1 Our Digital Form of Life 3

Neuromedia 3

Socrates on the Way to Larissa 12

Welcome to the Library 17

2 Google-Knowing 21

Easy Answers 21

Being Receptive: Downloading Facts 26

John Locke Agrees with Mom 31

Being Reasonable: Uploading Reasons 36

3 Fragmented Reasons: Is the Internet Making Us Less Reasonable? 41

The Abstract Society 41

When Fights Break Out in the Library 44

The Rationalist's Delusion 50

Democracy as a Space of Reasons 55

4 Truth, Lies and Social Media 65

Deleting the Truth 65

The Real as Virtual 67

Interlude: To SIM or Not to SIM 75

Falsehood, Fakes and the Noble Lie 77

Objectivity and Our Constructed World 83

Part II How We Know Now

5 Who Wants to Know: Privacy and Autonomy 89

Life in the Panopticon 89

The Values of Privacy 93

The Pool of Information 95

Privacy and the Concept of a Person 101

Transparency and Power 107

6 Who Does Know: Crowds, Clouds and Networks 111

Dead Metaphors 111

Knowledge Ain't Just in (Your) Head 113

The Knowing Crowd 116

The "Netography" of Knowledge 125

7 Who Gets to Know: The Political Economy of Knowledge 133

Knowledge Democratized? 133

Epistemic Equality 138

Walmarting the University 148

8 Understanding and the Digital Human 155

Big Knowledge 155

The End of Theory? 156

Understanding Understanding 163

Knowing How to Chuck 167

Coming to Understand as a Creative Act 174

9 The Internet of Us 179

Technology and Understanding 179

Information and the Ties That Bind 184

Acknowledgments 189

Notes 191

Bibliography 205

Index 215

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews