Utopia Is Creepy: And Other Provocations
Written by Nicholas Carr
Narrated by Steven Menasche
3.5/5
()
About this audiobook
With a razor wit, Nicholas Carr cuts through Silicon Valley's unsettlingly cheery vision of the technological future to ask a hard question: Have we been seduced by a lie? Gathering a decade's worth of posts from his blog, Rough Type, as well as his seminal essays, Utopia Is Creepy offers an alternative history of the digital age, chronicling its roller-coaster crazes and crashes, its blind triumphs, and its unintended consequences.
Carr's favorite targets are those zealots who believe so fervently in computers and data that they abandon common sense. Cheap digital tools do not make us all the next Fellini or Dylan. Social networks, diverting as they may be, are not vehicles for self-enlightenment. And “likes” and retweets are not going to elevate political discourse. When we expect technologies-designed for profit-to deliver a paradise of prosperity and convenience, we have forgotten ourselves. In response, Carr offers searching assessments of the future of work, the fate of reading, and the rise of artificial intelligence, challenging us to see our world anew.
In famous essays including “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” and “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Privacy,” Carr dissects the logic behind Silicon Valley's “liberation mythology,” showing how technology has both enriched and imprisoned us-often at the same time. Drawing on artists ranging from Walt Whitman to the Clash, while weaving in the latest findings from science and sociology, Utopia Is Creepy compels us to question the technological momentum that has trapped us in its flow. “Resistance is never futile,” argues Carr, and this audiobook delivers the proof.
Nicholas Carr
Nicholas Carr is the author of The Shallows, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, as well as The Big Switch and Does IT Matter? His articles and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Wired, and the New Republic, and he writes the widely read blog Rough Type. He has been writer-in-residence at the University of California, Berkeley, and an executive editor of the Harvard Business Review.
Related to Utopia Is Creepy
Related audiobooks
Revolt: The Worldwide Uprising Against Globalization Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is: A History, a Philosophy, a Warning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Live Work Work Work Die: A Journey into the Savage Heart of Silicon Valley Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail - and Why We Believe Them Anyway Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Twittering Machine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You Are Here: A Field Guide for Navigating Polarized Speech, Conspiracy Theories, and Our Polluted Media Landscape Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFewer, Richer, Greener: Prospects for Humanity in an Age of Abundance Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Know-It-Alls: The Rise of Silicon Valley as a Political Powerhouse and Social Wrecking Ball Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glass Cage: Automation and Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glass Cage: Nicholas Carr in Conversation with Tim Wu Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Team Human Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Village Effect: How Face-to-Face Contact Can Make Us Healthier, Happier, and Smarter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5iDisorder: Understanding Our Obsession with Technology and Overcoming Its Hold on Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Men, Machines, and Modern Times, 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Distracted Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Born Digital: The Story of a Distracted Generation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why We Are Restless: On the Modern Quest for Contentment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Conformity: The Power of Social Influences Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mind Is Flat: The Remarkable Shallowness of the Improvising Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Economics For You
The Meth Lunches: Food and Longing in an American City Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed or Fail Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Freakonomics Rev Ed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chip War: The Quest to Dominate the World's Most Critical Technology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5These are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs—and Wrecks—America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How the World Works Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Don't Trust Your Gut: Using Data to Get What You Really Want in Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why the Rich Are Getting Richer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nudge: The Final Edition: Improving Decisions About Money, Health, And The Environment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Genius of Israel: The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Marvel Comics: The Untold Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Economics 101: How the World Works Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Utopia Is Creepy
13 ratings1 review
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Not as focused as The Shallows or the Glass Cage, but perhaps that was Mr Carr's point? People's infatuation with technology isnt making them smarter, but they sure think so. Entertaining and informative, but not very in depth.