The Glass Cage — DSI Book

A book by Nicholas Carr about automation and it's hidden costs on our labor and leisure.

Nicholas Carr is a vocal critic of technology and the effects it has had on our society. He has written other critiques such as Does IT Matter? and The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to Our Brains, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 2011. The Glass Cage is one of his more recent pieces written in 2014.

The Glass Cage warns of the hidden costs of automation. The erosion of user skill and increasing amounts of complacency can be a recipe for disaster when it comes to critical moments in the event of a disaster, such as an airplane or ship guidance malfunction. It is not scolding modern automation, but simply reminding us that as users we have to remain attentive and sharp when using these tools that are intended to help, and not replace.

“Automation weakens the bond between tool and user not because computer-controlled systems are complex but because they ask so little of us.”

Below is an event where Carr talks about his book at an event and he is quite the public speaker. I suggest giving this a watch if interested in the book!

What is the glass cage?

In his book, Carr tells us specifically how the glass cockpits in aviation are a foreshadowing of the increasing amount of automation in modern society.

The glass cockpit can be thought of as a prototype of a world where “there is computer functionality everywhere.” The mounting evidence of an erosion of skills, a dulling of perceptions, and a slowing of reactions should give us all pause. As we begin to live our lives inside glass cockpits, we seem fated to discover what pilots already know: a glass cockpit can also be a glass cage.”

This was a great read and it's also touches on a variety of other subjects from the importance of ergonomics on modern tools and the moral implications of self-driving vehicles dealing with crisis situations on the road.