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 The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is: A History, a  
Philosophy, a Warning | Hardcover

Justin E H Smith

Princeton University Press | Princeton University Press
Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy / Social / Computers / Internet -
Online Safety & Privacy

An original deep history of the internet that tells the story  
of the centuries-old utopian dreams behind it-and explains why  
they have died today

"Many think of the internet as an unprecedented and
overwhelmingly positive achievement of modern human technology.
But is it? In The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is, Justin
Smith offers an original deep history of the internet, from the
ancient to the modern world-uncovering its surprising origins
in nature and centuries-old dreams of radically improving human
life by outsourcing thinking to machines and communicating
across vast distances. Yet, despite the internet's continuing
potential, Smith argues, the utopian hopes behind it have
finally died today, killed by the harsh realities of social
media, the global information economy, and the attention-
destroying nature of networked technology.

"Ranging over centuries of the history and philosophy of
science and technology, Smith shows how the "internet" has been
with us much longer than we usually think. He draws fascinating
connections between internet user experience, artificial
intelligence, the invention of the printing press,
communication between trees, and the origins of computing in
the machine-driven looms of the silk industry. At the same
time, he reveals how the internet's organic structure and
development root it in the natural world in unexpected ways
that challenge efforts to draw an easy line between technology
and nature.

Combining the sweep of intellectual history with the
incisiveness of philosophy, The Internet Is Not What You Think
It Is cuts through our daily digital lives to give a clear-
sighted picture of what the internet is, where it came from,
and where it might be taking us in the coming decades.

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