Technology Fatigue, Tyler Cowen, & Autism

by Cord Blomquist on June 24, 2009 · Comments

You hear it all the time.  People complain that they can’t get away from Facebook, Twitter, or even email—that the technology we own ends up owning us, or some similar cliche line about the digital dystopia that is consuming our humanity one bit at a time.  I can’t stand these people.

Thankfully there are people like my colleague Tyler Cowen who realize that—despite cultural reflexes that would have us do otherwise—we should embrace these new technologies as means to be more selective about what information we absorb and therefore welcome the increased volume of bytes into our lives.  In his new book Create Your Own Economy: The Path to Prosperity in a Disordered World, he explores technology as a vehicle to help you determine what you really value, not a series of a email-powered torture devices.

To make the material even more interesting, the book uses autism as a touchstone—one the chapters is even entitled “Autistic Politics”—as autism proves to be an effective analogy when talking about ways of absorbing and processing information.

For more about the book, you can visit the site I just finished building—CreateYourOwnEconomy.org—or pick up the book at Barnes & Noble, AbeBooks, or Amazon.com.

Comments Posted in: Philosophy & Cyber-Libertarianism, Technology, Business & Cool Toys, What We're Reading

  • Looking forward to reading this! Just finished Andrew keen's Cult of the Amateur and it sounds as if this will address many of the "but's" I had while reading...
  • Yes! I vote for Barney Frank, Ben Bernanke, and Tim Geithner to be placed at the helm of this global, managed economy. That way, we'll get the best outcomes, right?
  • You hear it all the time. People complain that they can’t get away from Facebook, Twitter, or even email—that the technology we own ends up owning us, or some similar cliche line about the digital dystopia that is consuming our humanity one bit at a time. I can’t stand these people.

    I could not agree more. However, the dystopian aspects of technology are very real. They don't stem from the inability of any inidividual to rise above and become empowered by technology, but rather from unforeseen systemic effects of technology. In particular, the way technology has changed the face of warfare (see John Robb's excellent blog Global Guerillas) or dislocated economic activity from the social and political structures that give society it's form and is the construct of it's social (community) space. (This is a theme of my blog ) It is not a given that the dynamically instable nature of the global economy will automatically lead to increasing prosperity unless it is managed. see Dani Rodrick's excellent blog about that. Note especially his lecture at LSE: Capitalism 3.0.
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