In his highly though-provoking book Devices of the soul: battling for our selves in an age of machines, Steve Talbott asks us to reconsider the current inbalance of man and machine - is our society's love affair with the machine named computer making us blind; forgetting our human nature in focusing on the possibilities of the computer? Talbott urges that we recognize computer systems as what they are: an expressions of the human mind. As such, we can make them work for us, but must take care that they do not limit our ways to work, and most importantly, our perception of ourselves. Talbott argues that we have started to see only the machine-like in humans, giving examples on how profound this development has changed education, with recent trends towards focusing on the measureable, ignoring deeper knowledge and how to foster it.
Our view on this topic has a great impact on the direction our society is moving; especially since computers - visible or invisible - are moving into more and more areas of our lives. Thus I recommend this book to anyone who likes to take a step back and think about where we're going. If not convinced yet, read more about the book here.
For a comic take on the wish or belief that machines have feelings - a symptom of debated in the book - check this SMBC comic about computers with feelings!
