Virtual Unreality: A book about how the internet is messing with your head
June 30, 2014 11:21 AM Subscribe
Virtual Unreality: A book about how the internet is messing with your head
Surprised that Facebook has been experimenting on you, deliberately tampering with your emotions? Don't be. Our reliance on digital information in all aspects of our life -- from shopping, to reading the news, to interacting with our friends -- is having an unexpected consequence: we are increasingly dependent on information that's being manipulated by parties who are trying to get you to act against your own self-interest. Virtual Unreality is a book about how the digital revolution is blurring the distinction between what's true from what's fictional, what's genuine from what's fake, what's human from what's algorithmic -- what's real and what's virtual.
The book is intended not only to show how digital information -- which has some different key properties from other forms of information that we've been exposed to before -- is altering your perception of the world, but also to give you some tools about how to cut through some of the new problems posed by our digital universe.
Related stuff: I just appeared on today's Leonard Lopate show to talk about the book, and will wind up on Science Friday on July 4. Also, just wrote an OpEd with Art Caplan about the Facebook experiment.
Surprised that Facebook has been experimenting on you, deliberately tampering with your emotions? Don't be. Our reliance on digital information in all aspects of our life -- from shopping, to reading the news, to interacting with our friends -- is having an unexpected consequence: we are increasingly dependent on information that's being manipulated by parties who are trying to get you to act against your own self-interest. Virtual Unreality is a book about how the digital revolution is blurring the distinction between what's true from what's fictional, what's genuine from what's fake, what's human from what's algorithmic -- what's real and what's virtual.
The book is intended not only to show how digital information -- which has some different key properties from other forms of information that we've been exposed to before -- is altering your perception of the world, but also to give you some tools about how to cut through some of the new problems posed by our digital universe.
Related stuff: I just appeared on today's Leonard Lopate show to talk about the book, and will wind up on Science Friday on July 4. Also, just wrote an OpEd with Art Caplan about the Facebook experiment.
Role: author
The widgets.penguin.com link just bounces to the www.penguin.com home page for me. It could be because I use a really locked down browser with everything turned off, though, which would be amusing.
posted by XMLicious at 7:59 PM on June 30, 2014
posted by XMLicious at 7:59 PM on June 30, 2014
Ah... thanks! Well, here's a Powell's link, for those whose widgets aren't working.
posted by cgs06 at 9:44 AM on July 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by cgs06 at 9:44 AM on July 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
And I appreciate the irony.
Enable cooooookies! Be traaaaackable! Join uuuuus.....
posted by cgs06 at 9:46 AM on July 1, 2014
Enable cooooookies! Be traaaaackable! Join uuuuus.....
posted by cgs06 at 9:46 AM on July 1, 2014
oh boy
posted by b9492e7f929dab23426aa2b344d3d5bef083f7e1 at 7:11 PM on July 1, 2014
posted by b9492e7f929dab23426aa2b344d3d5bef083f7e1 at 7:11 PM on July 1, 2014
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posted by cgs06 at 11:32 AM on June 30, 2014