Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age
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About this ebook
The hazards of perfect memory in the digital age
Delete looks at the surprising phenomenon of perfect remembering in the digital age, and reveals why we must reintroduce our capacity to forget. Digital technology empowers us as never before, yet it has unforeseen consequences as well. Potentially humiliating content on Facebook is enshrined in cyberspace for future employers to see. Google remembers everything we've searched for and when. The digital realm remembers what is sometimes better forgotten, and this has profound implications for us all.
In Delete, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger traces the important role that forgetting has played throughout human history, from the ability to make sound decisions unencumbered by the past to the possibility of second chances. The written word made it possible for humans to remember across generations and time, yet now digital technology and global networks are overriding our natural ability to forget—the past is ever present, ready to be called up at the click of a mouse. Mayer-Schönberger examines the technology that's facilitating the end of forgetting—digitization, cheap storage and easy retrieval, global access, and increasingly powerful software—and describes the dangers of everlasting digital memory, whether it's outdated information taken out of context or compromising photos the Web won't let us forget. He explains why information privacy rights and other fixes can't help us, and proposes an ingeniously simple solution—expiration dates on information—that may.
Delete is an eye-opening book that will help us remember how to forget in the digital age.
Viktor Mayer-Schönberger
VIKTOR MAYER-SCHÖNBERGER is Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University. The co-author of Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We, Live, Work, and Think, he has published over a hundred articles and eight other books, including Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age. He is on the advisory boards of corporations and organizations around the world, including Microsoft and the World Economic Forum.
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Reviews for Delete
24 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I thought this book was a good introduction to an increasingly important topic. It is a readable book and dig under the surface and there is a helpful model of approaching the implications of digital memory. There is a good balance between the issues, a conceptual framework and the pros and cons of some possible solutions. Only slightly let down by examples that were too extreme or simplistic.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Very interesting read and great proposals on how to revive the practice of forgetting. But I am unconvinced by the value of expiration dates on information. I think there is value in preserving data, even when it is uncomfortable for us. But unlike the author, I do not think that forgetting is a necessary predicate of forgiveness. Perhaps another book needs to be written on the value of forgiveness for society today. Perhaps though, we can't always forgive. But we can tolerate and accept that people do and say things we disagree with. I'm not advocating a kind of complete transparency, but not all information should be forgotten just because it's uncomfortable.
Additionally, the author doesn't address the issue of how forgetting can be an exercise of power too. Perpetrators of crimes would love for society to "forget". But that it to accept their power. Forgiveness, on the other hand, is a way to admit the past, and yet offer forgiveness.
Great book, but these are just a few caveats.