Customer Reviews

In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power

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I use this text in a course called "Work and Community" because it shows how various disciplines--history, philosophy, sociology, cognitive psychology --can inform discussions about how work is organized, and the kinds of power or authority relationships that workplaces, especially those where computers have changed the nature of work, abound. What's particularly interesting for me is the way Zuboff hits on the sort of literacy encouraged by computerized workplaces, and how information sharing requires real re-thinking of traditional roles of managers. In addition, the historical treatment of management as a developing professional competence would be critically enlightening for those who tend to study "business" as if it were merely a skill to acquire, rather than something with a history to be understood.

Zuboff's book should have been titled "The Future of Work and Power in the Age of the Smart Machine," because while the book does speak to the increasing computerization of the workplace, it does so in an historical context regarding how power has been and might be distributed between worker and manager. Automation is the effort to remove human skill from work, making humans the servants of the "smart machine." Informating is the way in which the computer can potentially change the workplace by distributing "management information" and power to the workers, making them co-equal partners in the enterprise. Zuboff suggests we still have a choice about which way to go, despite our self-protective impulses

I re-read this book again this year (2002) after a decade of its first publication in 1988, it still looks amazingly current, especially consider internet's wide adoption since 1995.

It was as though the smart machines and their relationships with human workplace has not changed since 1988. Even in silicon valley where I work, with so many tech companies with managers trained in technology background, their orgazniations keeps failing by repeating the single-minded strategy - replace human with technology.

As long as corporate America keep ignoring the main advice of t this book - that to fully utilize technology you have to understand the non-technical aspects of it (historical, psychological, social) - real productivity gain might be limited, until maybe we move everything to Bangalore, India.

I first read this book back in 1989 when I was working for NeXT computer, and it has remained in my mind as a landmark book. I heard a presentation from a person from Allegeny college that referenced this book. He was discussing the fact that when people are given different tools they solve problems in different ways. If all you have is DOS you abiltiy to solve information problems will be based on what you can do with DOS. But if you had a NeXT... Since reading this book I have tried to apply these concepts to my teaching object-oriented programming and high reuse problem solving techniques. This book really helped me understand that using advanced computers is a lot more then just teaching people a different windowing system. It is about getting them to rethink they WAY they solve thier problems using the cognative styles enabled by advanced software systems. Tim Berners-Lee could never have drempt of the web from a DOS system. But from a NeXT...

I honestly wish I could give this book zero stars. It was one of the most boring things I have ever had to read in my life. Waste of money. I only wish that God could bring me back in time to when I was reading it and kill me instead. Terrible book.