Publishers Weekly
★ 07/12/2021
Philosopher Reich (Just Giving), computer scientist Sahami, and Stanford professor of political science Weinstein offer in this timely survey tips for how to “exercise our agency, reinvigorate our democracy, and direct the digital revolution to serve our best interests.” Opening with the January 6 Capitol riots, the authors showcase the tension that marks society’s relationship with technology—social media was used to foment distrust in election results, and the leaders of Facebook and Twitter later leveraged immense power when they banned Donald Trump from their platforms. The authors explore major issues that they posit society needs to grapple with: the rise in the outsourcing of decision-making to algorithms, the immense amount of user data collected by tech companies, increasing automation, and the proliferation of hate speech and disinformation online. Their suggestions for how the country might better balance democracy and technology are evenhanded and nuanced: “A far more aggressive commitment to a right to data protection, alongside government agencies capable of enforcing that right, should be the first critical check on corporate power.” Never falling into the trap of offering easy answers over deep analysis, this study is worth a look for readers worried about the outsize influence of technology on their lives and society. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
"Enough with the breathless dreams of digital utopias and poisonous polemics about technological dystopias! In System Error, we finally have a book about the digital revolution that is serious rather than sensationalistic. Read this if you want to understand how to shape our technological future and reinvigorate democracy along the way." — Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO of Netflix
“System Error offers a powerful account of how our lives, our politics, and our values have been reshaped by technology in ways that we are just starting to comprehend. Full of stories and insights, this remarkable book charts a path forward for creating a healthy digital future.” — Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation
"System Error is a triumph: an analysis of the critical challenges facing our digital society that is as accessible as it is sophisticated. Best of all, the authors offer actual solutions for a reboot that are both timely and feasible." — Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO of New America
"System Error is essential reading for those who want to unlock the positive power of technology to advance human progress. This brilliantly crafted book lays out a vision for how the government and private sector can work together to deploy technology in service of a better world. Reich, Sahami, and Weinstein elucidate some of the most complex challenges facing our society, and ultimately remind us that there is no substitute for moral responsibility and business practices that support the health and well-being of our communities." — Evan Spiegel, CEO of SnapChat
"Albert Einstein once lamented that 'our technology has exceeded our humanity.' That danger is ever more pressing as powerful artificial intelligence technologies are transforming society at a pace never seen before. From the heart of Silicon Valley comes a profoundly important book that examines the ethical and social impact of the digital technologies and offers a more human-centered framework. This is a must-read for every student, engineer, businessperson, policymaker, or anyone who cares about our society’s collective future." — Dr. Fei-Fei Li, Professor Computer Science, Co-Director of Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered AI, and member of the National Academies of Engineering and Medicine
"It's not about the obvious villains. This wise, nuanced, quietly brilliant book reveals how technology is reshaping our society and our values in ways that are insidious, hidden—sometimes even from their inventors—and far more fascinating. Anyone who believes this reshaping shouldn't be entrusted to private companies needs to read it. Now." — Larissa MacFarquhar, author of Strangers Drowning: Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Urge to Help
"This is the best overview of the most severe problem facing the world today: that technology has become a weapon aimed at the heart of democracy. Balanced, thoughtful and constructive, this is exactly the kind of thinking we need more of." — Glen Weyl, Microsoft’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer and Founder of the RadicalxChange Foundation
"Such important work." — Joe Scarborough, Co-host of Morning Joe on MSNBC
"System Error is a powerful and important, timely book. It feels like a public service you have done for us, and I encourage everyone to pick up a copy." — Julian Castro, Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
"The authors explore major issues that they posit society needs to grapple with: the rise in the outsourcing of decision-making to algorithms, the immense amount of user data collected by tech companies, increasing automation, and the proliferation of hate speech and disinformation online. Their suggestions for how the country might better balance democracy and technology are evenhanded and nuanced . . . Never falling into the trap of offering easy answers over deep analysis, this study is worth a look for readers worried about the outsize influence of technology on their lives and society." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"This book’s contribution, and it’s an important one, is to spell out what needs to be fixed, and to provide two important reminders. First, the transition to digital in a democratic society was going to be messy no matter what—look at the antitrust fights that accompanied the telephone in the analog era. And second, solutions are going to be less about achieving utopia than about setting parameters to make sure certain things don’t happen. We live at best in a good-enough world.” — Wall Street Journal
Reed Hastings
"Enough with the breathless dreams of digital utopias and poisonous polemics about technological dystopias! In System Error, we finally have a book about the digital revolution that is serious rather than sensationalistic. Read this if you want to understand how to shape our technological future and reinvigorate democracy along the way."
Glen Weyl
"This is the best overview of the most severe problem facing the world today: that technology has become a weapon aimed at the heart of democracy. Balanced, thoughtful and constructive, this is exactly the kind of thinking we need more of."
Joe Scarborough
"Such important work."
Dr. Fei-Fei Li
"Albert Einstein once lamented that 'our technology has exceeded our humanity.' That danger is ever more pressing as powerful artificial intelligence technologies are transforming society at a pace never seen before. From the heart of Silicon Valley comes a profoundly important book that examines the ethical and social impact of the digital technologies and offers a more human-centered framework. This is a must-read for every student, engineer, businessperson, policymaker, or anyone who cares about our society’s collective future."
Darren Walker
System Error offers a powerful account of how our lives, our politics, and our values have been reshaped by technology in ways that we are just starting to comprehend. Full of stories and insights, this remarkable book charts a path forward for creating a healthy digital future.
Evan Spiegel
"System Error is essential reading for those who want to unlock the positive power of technology to advance human progress. This brilliantly crafted book lays out a vision for how the government and private sector can work together to deploy technology in service of a better world. Reich, Sahami, and Weinstein elucidate some of the most complex challenges facing our society, and ultimately remind us that there is no substitute for moral responsibility and business practices that support the health and well-being of our communities."
Anne-Marie Slaughter
"System Error is a triumph: an analysis of the critical challenges facing our digital society that is as accessible as it is sophisticated. Best of all, the authors offer actual solutions for a reboot that are both timely and feasible."
Julian Castro
"System Error is a powerful and important, timely book. It feels like a public service you have done for us, and I encourage everyone to pick up a copy."
Larissa MacFarquhar
"It's not about the obvious villains. This wise, nuanced, quietly brilliant book reveals how technology is reshaping our society and our values in ways that are insidious, hidden—sometimes even from their inventors—and far more fascinating. Anyone who believes this reshaping shouldn't be entrusted to private companies needs to read it. Now."
Wall Street Journal
"This book’s contribution, and it’s an important one, is to spell out what needs to be fixed, and to provide two important reminders. First, the transition to digital in a democratic society was going to be messy no matter what—look at the antitrust fights that accompanied the telephone in the analog era. And second, solutions are going to be less about achieving utopia than about setting parameters to make sure certain things don’t happen. We live at best in a good-enough world.
Wall Street Journal
"This book’s contribution, and it’s an important one, is to spell out what needs to be fixed, and to provide two important reminders. First, the transition to digital in a democratic society was going to be messy no matter what—look at the antitrust fights that accompanied the telephone in the analog era. And second, solutions are going to be less about achieving utopia than about setting parameters to make sure certain things don’t happen. We live at best in a good-enough world.
Joe Scarborough
"Such important work."
Kirkus Reviews
2021-08-31
The technological future promises to be a dark one—unless, as the authors insist, technology is pressed into the service of doing no harm, as once promised.
Media technology often taps the worst in our instincts, driving misinformation, exploiting gullibility, and even inciting violence. The authors, Stanford professors and longtime familiars in Silicon Valley, assert that the owners and operators of Facebook, Google, Amazon, and others have wrought more ill than good on many fronts: As engineers, they lack knowledge of public policy; as influencers of public policy, such as they understand it, they tend to a hands-off view that resists government intervention; as systems thinkers, they tend to despise democracy and instead, their demand for independence taken fully into account, to favor a technocratic view. Indeed, in one interesting thought experiment, a number of Silicon Valley leaders were asked what sort of society they might form if given the power to do so. They answered that they’d want a big patch of land, preferably an island, and certainly not a democracy as the form of government. Said one, “To optimize for science, we need a beneficent technocrat in charge. Democracy is too slow, and it holds science back.” As such, it’s no wonder that big tech has allowed for the amplification of anti-democratic views that go from the Ayn Rand–ian to the neofascist. In accessible prose, the authors argue that social media–wrought social engineering must be curbed. Along the way, they examine the effects—sometimes beneficial, mostly not—of algorithmic decision-making, which some enthusiasts argue will one day make lawyers and doctors redundant. The authors insist that such decision-making must be transparent, auditable, and accountable to norms of due process. In this illuminating account, they even offer a few rays of hope—e.g., actual hate speech on the web is surprisingly rare. Of course, they add, rare or not, it can lead to horrible behavior.
Of interest to futurists and civil libertarians alike.
