Book Review -- March 30, 1999

Roszak, Theodore. The Cult of Information. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

by Kelly Satterwhite

I. Table of Contents

Chapter 1: "Information, Please"

Information Old-Style

Enter UNIVAC

Cybernetics and the Secret of Life

Messages Without Meanings

The Biocomputer

Chapter 2: The Data Merchants

High Tech and the Conservative Opportunists

Sunbelt Politics and the Warfare State

Megahype

Hackers and Hucksters

Silicon and Natural Selection

Technophilia

Chapter 3: The Hidden Curriculum

The Chimera of Computer Literacy

A Solution in Search of Problems

The Computerized Campus

Power and Dependency

A Private Universe

Chapter 4: The Program Within the Program

The Case of Logo

Chapter 5: Of Ideas and Data

Ideas Come First

The Master Ideas

Experience, Memory, Insight

The Empiricist Gambit

No Ideas, No Information

Chapter 6: Computers and Pure Reason

The Light in Plato's Cave

The Old Mathematical Magic

The Seductions of Software

An Alien Intelligence

The Flight From Reality

The Fifth Generation...and Beyond

 Chapter 7: The Computer and the Counterculture

Big Blue and the Guerrilla Hackers

An Electronic Populism

The Heroic Age of the Microcomputer

Reversionaries and Technophiles

Domes, Data, and Dope

Decline and Fall

Chapter 8: The Politics of Information

Nothing But the Facts

Data Glut

Issues Before Information

On-line Communities: The Promise of Networking

Chapter 9: Ben Franklin's Information Service: Libraries, Literacy, and the Ecology of Mind The Public Library: The Missing Link in the information age

Privatizing the Public's Right to know

The Library's High-Tech Identity Crisis

NREN and the Internet: All the World On-Line

Aladdin's Magic digitized Lamp

Electronic Alzheimer's

Literacy Imperiled

Ecologists of Mind

Chapter 10: In the Wrong Hands

The Foundations of Information Technology

The Surveillance Machine

The Polling Machine

The War Machine

Machine a Gouverner

At the Limits of Sanity: The Psychotic Machine

Chapter 11: Descartes's Angel: Reflections on the True Art of Thinking

II. Summary and Comments 

Roszak claims that he is not a technophobic; instead, he is a person who is concerned with the heightened status of computer technology. The purpose of his book is to inform people of the negative aspects computers have on our society. He explains,"...we have seen too many technologies of the past go wrong to let our critical attention be misdirected by the computer enthusiasts" (xvi). Roszak's major concern with modern computers is that they will take the place of the human brain. He "insist[s] that information, even when it moves at the speed of light, is no more than it has ever been: discrete little bundles of fact, sometimes useful, sometimes trivial, and never the substance of thought" (87). Roszak bases the majority of his book upon this belief. He discusses the problems with using computers in education, in the home, in the government, and in the military.

Although Roszak claims that he is not against computer technology, he rarely brings up any good reasons for using it. In fact, Roszak often questions why we need new technology to replace existing non-problematic technology in our lives. For example, in 1994 Roszak predicts that students will soon be able to access library information from their dorm rooms, and they will also be able to send homework to their instructors through their computers. Roszak does not believe that this new technology is needed. He wonders why students cannot simply walk or drive to the library in order to access this information. I believe that if Roszak had his way computers would be used for one thing: word processing. However, I do believe that Roszak brings up relevant issues in his book. Many of the questions he brings up are similar to the ones we have been discussing in class: Should computers take over human jobs, such as teaching positions? How do we solve the technological gap between the poor schools and the rich schools? How do teachers integrate computers into their teaching methods? How do we prevent computers from taking the place of human thinking? Is their too much junk on the information highway?

In addition, Roszak interestingly questions the use of computers in government and military warfare. He explains that the use of computers in the government is taking away America's right to privacy. Computers can now store an entire person's lifetime information. For example, a person's criminal background, medical background, and personal background (divorces, interests, dislikes), can all be easily accessed through a computer. This personal information could be accessed by the wrong people, and could negatively be used against someone throughout his or her entire life. I believe that this is an invasion of our rights as Americans. Roszak also fears that military warfare, which is solely operated by computer, will malfunction, through a computer gliche, and mistakenly kill many people. Again, Roszak is stating that we should not use the computer to replace human thinking and ability. I agree that we may sometimes rely too much upon computers in our lives, but as long as we do not allow the computer to do our thinking for us, the computer can serve useful purposes in our lives. Roszak says, "I try to remind myself that once upon a time the printing press, the camera, the piano, the orchestra, and motion pictures were innovations with no cultural track record. But one thing I know for certain: the minds that use these powers well will still have to master the art of thinking" (xlii).

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