Customer Reviews

Hacking the Future: Stories for the Flesh-Eating 90s (Culturetexts)

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Only in a Canadian peering into the hreat of America's technological abyss has the perspective to see it for what it really is and shall be. Krokers's prose reaches the reader on different levels, all of which require some serious thought. This is a book that sums up a time that many already llok back at fondly and shows its more realistic side. Technology is a facet of the human mind. Kroker explains that we should look carefully at our modern wonders and realize that they are changing the fundamentals of human life in all its facet. Information and technology have no morals. But the impact of those who endure these technological marvels, are serious enough that they should be written of in a proper way. This book is a road map, of the information super highway. As well as possible showing us all, where we may just be heading. A must read for those interested in studying the dizzying future of the post modern man.

This book is a wonderful example of everything that is wrong with contemporary cultural theory when applied to new technologies. As in his other writings about the Internet and multimedia, Kroker attempts to speak with the accent of the genuine hacker, but his prose betrays a serious ignorance of the subject matter involved.

It's true: hard questions need to be asked. Our society's fetishization of technological progress and free markets should be challenged, and the best role for the Krokers and similar critics is poking the hornets' nest and seeing who gets stung.

But there are bigger questions when studying Data Trash, Hacking the Future and the Krokers' other techno-dystopian tomes: does all this jargon and rhetoric actually add up to anything? The Krokers have been great at stirring the pot, but seem to have some fundamental misconceptions about the nature of technology and how, in a practical sense, it is accepted or rejected by people.

Instead of just talking about economic culture and gloabalization, the Krokers wrap everything in hackeresque techno-babble, and instead of driving their points home, all we get is muddle.

This book has nothing to do with hacking. In fact, it has very little to do with technology at all. Instead, Hacking the Future can best be described as a series of art college-style attacks on obviously misunderstood technology.