Silicon Snake Oil

Unfortunately, the ones who should read it the most are precisely the ones who would pan it (and did, see some reviews below).Mr. Stoll has written an excellent book that contains enough humor and personality to keep it interesting. This book can be easily read by anyone whether they understand computers or not because it is not a discussion of how computers work, but what the cost is when we give them too much credit.I've been programming computers for 18 years, before there even were PCs. Heck, when I learned, I had to punch my own cards (how many of you remember those?). I find that computers are an excellent tool for problem solving and for storing and printing information, but I've always been trained that computers are, basically, just a tool. They depend on the programmer or the user to turn their output into something useful. How ridiculous it would seem if we glorified hammers because they build houses for us! But we do the same thing for computers when the only thing they really do is help us to work faster.This is the premise of Silicon Snake-Oil. We should spend less time teaching people where to click and more time teaching people WHY to click there! Just because someone can download a fancy picture of the devastation of the rainforest doesn't mean they have the slightest clue about what it means.What Clifford Stoll is trying to do here is to remind us that it's not the hammer but the person who uses it that builds the house. The fact that schools routinely fire teachers and librarians to make room for computers shows how far we've gone down the wrong path.Read Silicon Snake-Oil, but don't read it with a chip on your shoulder trying to defend computers, read it with the intention of learning the difference between the tool and the builder.

"...I'm writing this free-form meidation out of a sense of perplexity. Computers themselves don't bother me; I'm vexed by the culture in which they're enshrined." With this comment made Clifford Stoll sets out to elnlighten the reader about computer culture in his latest book, Silicon snake Oil. This best selling author of The Cuckoo's Egg, porvides much needed insight into the computer craze sweeping society. Stoll uses ancecdotes and unconventional writing styles to drive his points home. His expertise in astronomy, as well as pioneering the information superhighway lend added support for his arguments. According to Stoll, "Few aspects of daily life require computers...They're irrelevant to cooking, driving, visiting, and negotiating, eating, hiking, dancing, speaking, and gossiping...computers can't provide a richer or better life." By using stories about his personal experience with computing Stoll illustrates his point of view magnificently. additionally, the stroies he relays about actually living real life serve as proof that life is actually worth living. Stoll comments, "Computers and networks don't just get in the way of work. They also separate us from the pleasures of daily life." At first the writing style is a bit awkward, but after a few chapters the pages turn effortlessly and the writers motive is clear. Stoll, in employing first person and what might seem to some as haplessly wandering from idea to idea, is illustrating the beauty of real life. Through his writing styel, Stoll is showing how beautiful disorder can be and that having everything in life run by binary codes does not necessarily provide ultimate satisfaction. In fact, Stoll seems to suggest, it provides an artificial, sanitized, version of life that allows for little to no creativity and enjoyment. Throughout the book Stoll examines different areas of society and points out the purported benefit of computers and then counters with his proof to the contrary. Stoll delves into education, libraries, the workplace, and even personal relationships. In each instance he clearly illustrates the dangers society faces when it blindly pursues a new technology at the expense of already existing options. This book is an extremely easy read and, if the reader is receptive, imparts knowledge well beyond the 250 pages contained therein. In the end this observation seems to sum up Stoll's premise, "No spreadsheet can create data where there is none. No word processor can help me write better. No online database can answer the tough questions...those which do not yet have answers."

Technology in the form of the Internet, with its push toward virtual reality and far fetched promises, is receiving too much emphasis in our daily lives according to Clifford Stoll author of this book. Stoll is an astronomer, an author, a computer wizard and a long-time user of the Internet. This book is a close examination of the Internet and its impact on society and the world including several aspects such as: libaries, education, myths concerning the Internet, the skills that are being learned and utilized, the culture of exclusion, and rapid evolution of computer technology. All of these elements have evolved with the advent of the Internet lead to the de-humanization of life, as we know it. Stoll said, "The falsehood of the Internet is that it will provide us with close, meaningful relationships, with cheap, good information and with useful life skills." Stoll's style of writing is easy to read and brings the complex concepts used to discuss technology to a comfortable and entertaining level that heightens the impact of the piece. The Internet is shown as a useful tool while at the same time Stoll warns us of the dangers that occur when a tool is thought to be and used as the cure-all for society. Like Thoreau, Stoll would like to see society move toward simplicity, back to the basics. He uses several personal examples as well as powerful metaphors to address his legitimate concerns about the overuse of the Internet. The author challenges the idea that the Internet is essential. He points out that the Internet is just as easily used to work ing and for entertainment. This raised the question: Does is make doing work more efficient? Stoll justifies his criticism of the Internet, which is an important tool in his life and his work by saying, "For I'm mainly speaking to people who feel mystically lured to the Internet: lotus-eaters, beware. Life in the real world is far more interesting, far more important, far richer, than anything you'll ever find on a computer screen." The Internet is rumored to be: fast and cheap; used by a large number of people; bringing diversity and culture to the common people; a good place to meet others; the ultimate forum for democracy; and starting a literary revival; all of which are discussed in chapter 2. Stoll's belief that the anonymity of people on-line causes some concern is demonstrated in this particularly humorous excerpt, "There are several guys on-line for every woman. But, like the outlook for women in Alaska, the odds are good, but the goods are odd." Stoll recognizes the need that people feel for a community, but he believes that the Internet can only provide an imitation, a mock, a metaphorical reality that will never compare to or create a better society than what already exists. On-line reality is "surrogate to experience," a "simulation of the physical world," a "digital dumpster," because when you turn off your computer the community va

Ever wonder why computers make everything better? Ever wonder if they really do? Stoll takes a step back and examines whether our society needs technology and what's its effects may be. A fascinating read.

Perhaps some third thoughts are in order. Stoll is fascinating to watch and interesting to read. In a way, that's the point of this book: Genuine life experiences-- sights, sounds, tastes, touches-- are always richer than virtual life experiences, represented most obviously by the Internet. Stoll hammers relentlessly at the absurdities of the connected life. He is, of course, right. One pictures the computer geek, alone with his machine, staring at on-line images of great art works, unaware of the museum down the street, or-- even worse-- unwilling to go there to experience the art first hand in the company of other people. So what? We are training a generation of children to do the same, to send e-mail to other students in their own schools rather than simply speaking to them and to paradoxically limit their worlds to the limitless world of the Internet. This all has a oddly familiar ring: Over a hundred years ago, Emerson's "Self Reliance" warned that the machines of his day had already and irrevocably destroyed mankind's ability to function in the natural world. Lets face it: Computers are simply machines. We determine their uses. At their best, they make our lives easier; at their worst, as Stoll sees it, they isolate us from our fellow humans and waste enormous amounts of our time. Read this entertaining and provocative book. Then, before you sit at your keyboard, play with a puppy out in the snow. We can have it both ways.