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Title: Silicon Snake Oil : Second Thoughts on the Information Highway by Clifford Stoll ISBN: 0-385-41994-5 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 01 March, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.58 (66 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: A Blast From Internet Past
Comment: Clifford Stoll's Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway, raises some legitimate concerns about the Internet for 1995-and I stress for 1995. Most of his warnings about the Internet were rather outdated, and seemed foolish in today's computer age. With computer technology advancing so quickly, books about the Internet can become dated quite quickly, and that is exactly what I found in this case. Stoll discusses some of the major concerns that people had in the mid-90s about the emerging Internet phenomenon, including issues centering around efficiency and security. Perhaps these arguments were realistic for computer users about five years ago, but developing technologies quickly remedied these, and made the Internet a much more efficient resource for business, communication, entertainment--you name it. I hate to criticize a book merely for the fact that it is far outdated, but I just can't give a great review to a book full of statements and suggestions that no longer hold any weight!
Rating: 1
Summary: The Art and Science of Logic Takes a Fatal Blow
Comment: This book contains a veritable catalogue of every fallacy known to the art and science of logic. As a treatise meant to persuade the reader, its reasoning and language is nothing short of ridiculous. He fails to establish any sort of common ground or reliability. Then he wallows in abusive Ad Hominum, discrediting pro-technology positions by insulting those who hold it. He introduces a dozen red herrings, wasting time justifying conclusions irrelevant to the issues at hand. The book erects an army of straw men as it attempts to justify its rejection of positions by creating then discrediting different and usually weaker positions. More than anything it is a gallery of appeals to emotion, attempting to rationalize its conclusions by appealing to the sentiment of the audience. (There is enough thickly sweet sentiment in every chapter to make Cicero proud.) I could go on, but I'm already leaving this review barren of specific examples in order to deliver as much warning as I can in as few words: this book is nothing more than an irrational emotional outburst against computers and the Internet. It contains no compelling argument, and will drown you in sentimental prose as eye-rolling as any grocery store romance novel. Do not expect Stoll to be your rational, level-headed guide to the dangers of technology. Do not expect thoughtfully compiled evidence, articulate and clever argument, and a reasonable conclusion. Should he have had anything to say, he abandoned it from the first sentence of his project to a weak, wandering essay on "feelings" alone.
Rating: 4
Summary: can we turn our backs on computer network ?
Comment: The book is about Stoll's perspective on the hidden costs of new information technology, especially on the role of computer networking in our lives. Instead of viewing computers and networks as good components to make a better society, Stoll's commentary actually supposes that computers and networks are frustrating, expensive, and unreliable.
Can we just simply turn our backs on the network? Why? Because according to Stoll, [computer networks] isolate us from one another and cheapen the meaning of actual experience. They work against literacy and creativity. They undercut our schools and libraries(p.3). Although the Internet provides easier life to our society, a society deals with people, not computers. Human interactions and contacts involve with belonging. Of course, computer networks may also establish a community with the interaction, such as cybersex and cyber-relationship. However, this type of community is without church, cafe or theater. Yes, it has plenty of human contact, but no humanity. Then, what is missing from this neighborhood? We chat without speaking, smile without grinning, and hug without touching. We lose the real life experience and the humanity!
Throughout the book, Stoll's basic mode of argument is to compare two functional techniques: a computational technique (ex. email) and a less-computational technique (ex. postal service). Stoll intents to highlight various positive aspects of the latter technique that are missing in the former. For example, the post office allows a variety of style on envelops, signatures, letterheads, checks, and logos. With the email technique, everyone and every business use the same and uniform style to communicate - ASCII text. The only difference between your messages and others' is the contents. Similarly, Stoll applies this style of argument on the comparisons of libraries with and without computer networks, a classroom with and without computers, and typewrites versus word processors.
It is an entertaining and a thought-provoking book. Stoll cares about what happens to our networked neighborhood, and more importantly, what is happening in our larger society while facing the wave of computer networks. "Computers themselves don't bother me; I am vexed by the culture in which they are enshrined(p.3). No one who is interested in such issue will regard reading Stoll's book.
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Title: High-Tech Heretic : Reflections of a Computer Contrarian by Clifford Stoll ISBN: 0385489765 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 12 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage by Clifford Stoll ISBN: 0743411463 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 03 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: High Tech Heretic : Why Computers Don't Belong in the Classroom and Other Reflections by a ComputerContrarian by Clifford Stoll ISBN: 0385489757 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 19 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: How the Internet Works, Seventh Edition by Preston Gralla ISBN: 0789729733 Publisher: Que Pub. Date: 15 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.99 |
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Title: Beyond Calculation: The Next Fifty Years of Computing by Peter J. Denning, Robert M. Metcalfe ISBN: 0387985883 Publisher: Copernicus Books Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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