Book Review: The Rise of the Humans ? How to outsmart the digital deluge By Dave Coplin

Book Review: The Rise of the Humans ? How to outsmart the digital deluge By Dave Coplin
Katarina Nolte ? 09/10/2014

This book was written by a Microsoft UK ?envisioning officer?.

?We are drowning in a sea of artificiality.?

It reminds us that information is useless if we accept it without reservations.

Information is only truly practical if we examine and analyze it in a concrete context, if we view information as an additional tidbit, another peace of the puzzle. A piece which we can choose to add to the existing sum total of our personal knowledge.

In other words, knowledge is not knowledge if we don?t completely comprehend the meaning of what we already ?know?.

The question of whether advanced technology making us dull is raised.

Interestingly, the author explains that most of today?s office employees exhibit a lack of productivity. This means that people either don?t care about the work they do or they hate it.

The author admits that technology is not the be all end all solution to modern human issues.

At the same time, the author argues that the issue is the way technology is used at present time.

The book reminds us that technology is a part of our (human) evolution. It is changing human culture in ways that cause us to be detached and simultaneously over connected.

This, of course, is a well known fact, but we must wonder how natural our pre-high-tech lives have been to begin with. During much of our existence we did not live in groups greater than a dozen people, we did not have densely packed buildings, noise, traffic, polluted air and water, and substandard food quality.

Naturally, we seek to get away from it all, one way or another, and we use even more technology to achieve this to whatever degree possible.

We also know all to well that we are where we are becaue of technology for worse or the better.

We use artificial tools (technology) to escape the artificial world (culture) we live in.

Life and work productivity are at the center of this book which leads back to nature vs. civilization. Analysis of prehistoric humans show that we have not evolved to produce stuff every day for the entire duration of our lives regardless of whether the work is more mental of physical.

It is in our nature to carefully observe, question and comprehend for the purpose of survival and pleasere.

Overall, a great and timely book, worth reading and thought provoking.