Serfing the Net

When you think of criticisms of technology, what image comes to mind? For many it might be akin to Frankenstein’s monster. After all, technology is a thing we unleash onto the world, sometimes with the best of intentions, often in ignorance. And like Dr. Frankenstein when faced with his monster, we may recoil in terror. Certainly atomic weapons ignite such feelings. Even far more prosaic pieces of technology, such as smart phones, may be seen in this light. Always on, they leave us forever available for work of one kind or another.

Some commentators, such as French sociologist Bruno Latour, say we must love our monsters. In other words, we must do the opposite of Dr. Frankenstein, and rigorously confront the existence of our creations. But who is to say that when we confront them in this way we do not end with a conception as off-putting as that of Karl Marx, who at one point described capital (and by extension, the technologies it utilizes) as something...