Books like The Glass Cage by Nicholas Carr

An accessible guide that argues attention is the most valuable resource in our data‑driven world and offers practical ways to reclaim it for deeper reflection, ethical work, and political activism.

An illustrated exploration of the hidden history behind everyday inventions, showing how seemingly unrelated discoveries shaped our modern world.

Neil Postman warns of the growing dominance of technology—its impact on politics, intellect, religion, history, privacy, and truth—in his critical examination of the late twentieth‑century “Technopoly.”

Xiaowei Wang’s nonfiction book examines how rural China blends advanced technology—AI, e‑commerce, and blockchain—with farming, challenging stereotypes and revealing a dynamic, globally connected digital economy.

Matt Richtel examines the deadly rise of distracted driving, using a 2006 Utah crash that killed two rocket scientists to explore how cell‑phone use divides attention, affects brain function, and reshapes society.

"Springing from the febrile mind of mathematician Norbert Wiener amid the devastation of World War II, the cybernetic vision underpinned a host of seductive myths about the future of machines. This vision would radically transform the postwar world, ushering in sweeping cultural change. From the Cold War's monumental SAGE bomber defense system to enhanced humans, Wiener's scheme turned computers from machines of assured destruction into engines of brilliant utopias. Cybernetics triggered blissful cults, the Whole Earth Catalog, and feminist manifestos, just as it fueled martial gizmos and the air force's foray into virtual space. As Rid shows, Cybernetics proved a powerful tool for two competing factions-- those who sought to make a better world and those who sought to control the one at hand. In the Bay Area, techno-libertarians embraced networked machines as the portal to a new electronic frontier: a peaceful, open space of freedom. In Washington, DC, cyberspace provided the perfect theater for dominance and war. Meanwhile the future arrived secretly in 1996, with Moonlight Maze, dawn of a new age of digital state-on-state espionage. That "first cyberwar" ... went on for years-- and indeed has never stopped. In our long-promised cybernetic future, the line between utopia and dystopia continues to be disturbingly thin."--Jacket flap.

"Every year, companies spend more than $2 trillion on computer and communications equipment and services. Underlying these enormous expenditures is one of modern business's most deeply held assumptions: that information technology is increasingly critical to competitive advantage and strategic success." "In this book, Nicholas G. Carr calls the common wisdom into question, contending that IT's strategic importance has actually dissipated as its core functions have become available and affordable to all. Expanding on the controversial Harvard Business Review article that provoked a storm a debate around the world, Does IT Matter? shows that IT - like earlier infrastructural technologies such as railroads and electric power - is steadily evolving from a profit-boosting proprietary resource to a simple cost of doing business." "Carr draws on convincing historical and contemporary examples to explain why innovations in hardware, software, and networking are rapidly replicated by competitors, neutralizing their strategic power to set one business apart from the pack. He shows why IT's emergence as a shared and standardized infrastructure is a natural and necessary process that may ultimately deliver huge economic and social benefits."--BOOK JACKET.

Jaron Lanier, pioneer of the Web, warns of the unintended social and cultural consequences of early design choices. He critiques how anonymity, algorithmic dominance, and unchecked innovation shape our digital lives, urging a human‑centered technology future.

Sherry Turkle explores how technology reshapes empathy and human connection, drawing on her work with psychologists, women in tech, and social insights.