Nick Harkaway, author of Angelmaker, presents a rousing and energizing look at how we can meaningfully and constructively engage with technology—creating an essential handbook for anyone trying to be human in a digital age.
Some say our devices will lead us to ruin: isolating us from our neighbors, warping communication, delivering an unregulated flood of information that will destroy our humanity. Some say they will be our salvation: enabling global communication and social engagement, putting all the world’s facts at our fingertips, and erasing the barriers that divide us, bringing out the best qualities of humanity. In The Blind Giant, novelist and blogger Nick Harkaway takes us on a lucid, insightful and personal tour of how we live our lives in our technology-obsessed culture. A self-described “missing link” between the pre-Internet generation and the “digital natives” who have grown up with technology, Nick is an enthusiastic guide to digital culture who weaves together examples from literature, psychology, neurology, sociology, history, and his own life while exploring the hazards and joys of the human-machine relationship. In the final analysis, whether we meaningfully engage with the machines we have created, or risk living in a world which is designed to serve computers and corporations rather than people, this book is a must-read for anyone concerned with our digital future.
Nick Harkaway is the acclaimed author of Gnomon, The Gone-Away World, Angelmaker, Tigerman, and Titanium Noir, among others. He is the son of John le Carré, and has a unique insight into his father’s work. The Guardian writes of Harkaway that "his great gift as a novelist . . . is to merge the pace, wit, and clarity of the best 'popular' literature and the ambition, complexity, and irony of the so-called 'literary' novel"—a rare combination which le Carré himself also achieved.
View titles by Nick Harkaway
Nick Harkaway, author of Angelmaker, presents a rousing and energizing look at how we can meaningfully and constructively engage with technology—creating an essential handbook for anyone trying to be human in a digital age.
Some say our devices will lead us to ruin: isolating us from our neighbors, warping communication, delivering an unregulated flood of information that will destroy our humanity. Some say they will be our salvation: enabling global communication and social engagement, putting all the world’s facts at our fingertips, and erasing the barriers that divide us, bringing out the best qualities of humanity. In The Blind Giant, novelist and blogger Nick Harkaway takes us on a lucid, insightful and personal tour of how we live our lives in our technology-obsessed culture. A self-described “missing link” between the pre-Internet generation and the “digital natives” who have grown up with technology, Nick is an enthusiastic guide to digital culture who weaves together examples from literature, psychology, neurology, sociology, history, and his own life while exploring the hazards and joys of the human-machine relationship. In the final analysis, whether we meaningfully engage with the machines we have created, or risk living in a world which is designed to serve computers and corporations rather than people, this book is a must-read for anyone concerned with our digital future.
Nick Harkaway is the acclaimed author of Gnomon, The Gone-Away World, Angelmaker, Tigerman, and Titanium Noir, among others. He is the son of John le Carré, and has a unique insight into his father’s work. The Guardian writes of Harkaway that "his great gift as a novelist . . . is to merge the pace, wit, and clarity of the best 'popular' literature and the ambition, complexity, and irony of the so-called 'literary' novel"—a rare combination which le Carré himself also achieved.
View titles by Nick Harkaway
