Not so fast, says Bowers, who believes that the media's infatuation with computers has blinded us to their negative effect on world cultures and the environment. An educator and author of The Culture of Denial (1997), Bowers asks readers to tune out the hype and focus on the motivations behind and consequences of the spread of computer technology, which he equates with nineteenth-century colonialism. Computers are a product of the Industrial Revolution's mindset, the belief that defines "humans as the dominant species and Nature as an economic resource." This distorted perspective, coupled with the push to computerize every aspect of life, has led to environmental degradation, cultural homogenization, and economic inequities that are now giving globalization a bad name. To compound the problem, our educational system does little to challenge assumptions that value the marketplace and technology more than communities and ecological well-being. Academic in tone but humanistic in content, Bowers' probing and nuanced critique provides a much-needed catalyst for serious debate about the state of the planet now and in the near future.
Donna SeamanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"Bowers provides us with a lucid analysis of how computer-enforced cultural patterns contribute to the global ecological crisis and suggests alternative ways of integrating computers into education. I highly recommend this book to all who are concerned about creating sustainable futures."--Fritjof Capra, author of The Web of Life
"Let Them Eat Data is one of the most substantial and compelling works of technology criticism yet. This book might just rescue education from the moral sterility and ecological illiteracy of cyber-mindedness. A vital read. Pass it on."--Stephanie Mills, author of In Service of the Wild
"Once again, C. A. Bowers has provided an important, profound, and disturbing critique, this time of computer technology. We cannot afford the luxury of ducking the questions and implications he raises because they go to the heart of the cyberworld, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence that are pressing into our lives. Bowers made me ponder what life is all about and why the inevitability and unalloyed benefits of the technology are so uncritically adopted. This book is certain to make tangible the discomfort many feel with new and rapidly changing technology and to infuriate the believers and profitmakers from the same technology.”--David Suzuki
"Bowers's original and highly insightful discussion of the forms of knowledge, relationships, and skills that cannot be communicated through computers alerts us to the dangers of letting technologists determine the future direction of education, communities, and our cultural identities. Parents, citizens, activists, and academics will find Let Them Eat Data a vital antidote to the techno-optimism that now dominates the media and public decision making."--Richard E. Sclove, author of Democracy and Technology
“Bowers' probing and nuanced critique provides a much-needed catalyst for serious debate about the state of the planet now and in the near future."--Booklist
"Essential reading if we are to begin democratizing technological decisions, conserving true cultural diversity and intergenerational forms of knowledge, and living within the limits and possibilities of the Earth's natural systems.”--International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education
“Bowers makes his ideas concrete though a critical analysis of three popular computer programs commonly used in public schools nationwide. . . . In a field where the prevailing attitude toward students is 'let them eat data,' Bowers gives teachers food for thought."--Radical Teacher
"Bowers forcefully dismisses the views of those who claim that talk of an ecological crisis is but a liberal ruse used to control the lives of others. . . . Let Them Eat Data is a welcome relief from the hubris exhibited by such digital devotees as Bill Gates, who unabashedly proclaim computers to be an Open Sesame to a brighter future for all mankind."--Gard Binney, The Ecologist
