Exploring the Social Side of Tech: Must-Read Books for Both Experts and Novices
Technology has had a profound impact on the social aspects of our lives. On one hand, technology has allowed us to connect with people from all over the world, making the world a much smaller place. This even extends to making foreign investments a cakewalk for many nations. Technology also allows us to access information more quickly and easily than ever before. This has made it easy for people to stay informed on current events and to become more informed citizens.
The use of technology such as video games and smartphones can easily lead to a sedentary lifestyle, with little or no interaction with other people. Finally, technology has made it easier for people to become more dependent on it. With the rise of automation and artificial intelligence, more people are relying on machines to do the work that once required human labor. This can lead to a lack of job opportunities and a decrease in human interaction.
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Several of these books may be familiar to individuals who have been following trends in digitization attentively. They make for fantastic starting points for those who are attempting to comprehend the environment. Anybody trying to comprehend technology from various societal perspectives should find these books helpful.
List of Books Discussing the Social Aspects of Technology
The Outsourcer: The Story of India’s IT Revolution
Dinesh C. Sharma’s The Long Revolution: The Birth and Development of India’s IT Industry was released as he chronicled India’s history of computerization, from the creation of India’s first indigenous computer, TIFRAC, to the evolution of the IT sector following liberalization around the year 2000.
This book provides all the information about the early advancements in computer science in India, from TIFR through IITs, as well as the roles played by different actors throughout the growth cycle. Sharma described the significance IBM played in the country’s early computerization as well as how the company’s monopoly has hampered India’s progress in the field.
Sharma offers us inside information on what truly happened, despite the widespread belief that George Fernandes was to blame for IBM’s expulsion from India following the Emergency.
The Outsourcer is a must-read book on the establishment of early Indian institutions including the National Informatics Center and the Electronics Commission of India, as well as the transition from the calculator to computer manufacturing.
Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government Saving Privacy in the Digital Age
The bestselling book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy, which followed numerous Silicon Valley characters, is very well known. Levy, a reporter who covered early Silicon Valley developments, closely tracked the technological rebels as well, including the crypto-anarchists and cypherpunks who freed encryption from the control of the government.
Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman developed the Diffie-Hellman algorithm, which enables secure internet communication, as described in the book Crypto. It reveals how the government and its surveillance services operate in addition to the rebels who created encryption. The National Security Agency is examined in Crypto along with its operations in the US.
Global “Body Shopping”: An Indian Labor System in the Information Technology Industry
In the international IT markets, it’s hiring time. However, every major IT company is putting the needs of the market’s profitability above the livelihoods of its employees by decreasing its personnel to signal markets. This arrangement is not brand-new and has been a standard procedure inside the IT industry from the early stages of globalization.
While earning his Ph.D. at Oxford University, anthropologist Xiang Biao, of Chinese descent, ended up in Sydney, Hyderabad, and villages in Andhra Pradesh. He researched the IT industry’s labor markets there.
Generally speaking, the book provides you with a social understanding of the IT marketplaces and their operation from a labor perspective.
Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change From the Cult of Technology
Kentaro Toyama, an award-winning computer scientist and the assistant managing director of Microsoft Research India, found that promoting technology did not alter society. For ten years, Kentaro Toyama has experimented with projects in agriculture, health, and education.
By referring to himself as a “recovering technophobic” in Geek Heresy, he challenges the technocratic orthodoxy. Kentaro Toyama explores the function of technology in amplifying certain social effects in what he terms the “Law of Amplification” and circumstances where it might not be obvious along with stories from his experiences in India and other nations.
Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende’s Chile
Technology was used outside of capitalist civilizations to enhance industrial productivity. Project CyberSyn, which was conducted in Chile during the leadership of Salvador Allende, was an important experiment. Under Allende, Project CyberSyn served as a decision support system to assist in managing and transforming the Chilean national economy.
In Cybernetic Revolutionaries, British theorist, and cybernetician Stafford Beer describes how politics and technology interacted with one another while CyberSyn was being implemented.
For any Marxist striving to envision a technologically alternative Marxist future, Eden Medina’s historical account of Project CyberSyn is a must-read since it explains how political and technological forces shaped the initiative.
Technology and (Dis)Empowerment: A Call to Technologists
The question that is motivating different engineers is how to create technology such that people are empowered rather than being disempowered by it. In the form of a call for technologists, Aaditeshwar Seth, a faculty member at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and the founder of the participatory media platform Gram Vaani, has suggested several alternate strategies.
Many aspects of technology products, such as exploitation and the ethics of technology production, have been discussed throughout the book. The author discusses the limitations of technical design and how, even with the best of intentions, social ends might not be realized while suggesting ways to develop for social benefit.
Conclusion
Technology in itself is quite a vast field and to understand the minute aspects of how the advancement of technology is influenced and impacted by a multitude of factors, one needs to study all aspects whether social, political, or legal. What better way of this than to read from the combined experiences and wisdom of those who have spent their life calculating and monitoring the movement of digitization from its very first step?
