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Your Computer Is on Fire
Techno-utopianism is dead: Now is the time to pay attention to the inequality, marginalization, and biases woven into our technological systems.
This book sounds an alarm: after decades of being lulled into complacency by narratives of technological utopianism and neutrality, people are waking up to the large-scale consequences of Silicon Valley–led technophilia. This book trains a spotlight on the inequality, marginalization, and biases in our technological systems, showing how they are not just minor bugs to be patched, but part and parcel of ideas that assume technology can fix—and control—society.
The essays in Your Computer Is on Fire interrogate how our human and computational infrastructures overlap, showing why technologies that centralize power tend to weaken democracy. These practices are often kept out of sight until it is too late to question the costs of how they shape society. From energy-hungry server farms to racist and sexist algorithms, the digital is always IRL, with everything that happens algorithmically or online influencing our offline lives as well. Each essay proposes paths for action to understand and solve technological problems that are often ignored or misunderstood.
This book sounds an alarm: after decades of being lulled into complacency by narratives of technological utopianism and neutrality, people are waking up to the large-scale consequences of Silicon Valley–led technophilia. This book trains a spotlight on the inequality, marginalization, and biases in our technological systems, showing how they are not just minor bugs to be patched, but part and parcel of ideas that assume technology can fix—and control—society.
The essays in Your Computer Is on Fire interrogate how our human and computational infrastructures overlap, showing why technologies that centralize power tend to weaken democracy. These practices are often kept out of sight until it is too late to question the costs of how they shape society. From energy-hungry server farms to racist and sexist algorithms, the digital is always IRL, with everything that happens algorithmically or online influencing our offline lives as well. Each essay proposes paths for action to understand and solve technological problems that are often ignored or misunderstood.
416 pages, Paperback
Published March 9, 2021
51 people are currently reading
1061 people want to read
About the author
Thomas S. Mullaney
8 books49 followersThomas S. Mullaney is Associate Professor of History at Stanford University and the author of Coming to Terms with the Nation: Ethnic Classification in Modern China.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 15, 2021
Finally!! An academic text that is rigorous and readable. There is no equivocation, no academese, no needless jargon. The chapter titles alone are a perfect example of straightforward writing: "The Cloud is a Factory," "Sexism is a Feature, Not a Bug," "Your AI is a Human." These are bold, declarative titles, and this is a bold, declarative book.
To be sure, I think a lot of the arguments are overblown. I don't think we're in some apocalyptic mega-emergency here with AI and other digital tools. I think these technologies have serious problems, and these problems have been increasingly discussed (and in some cases, addressed) over the last five years. Once you point out that an algorithm is structurally biased in some way, the solution is to figure out how to eliminate that bias—whether that means having a more diverse workforce or a more diverse data training set—not pull the fire alarm and threaten to blow up the entire enterprise.
That said, I think the historical and sociological work that went into this book is top-notch. If you want to understand the hoopla around tech, AI, privacy, and the internet at large, you should start here. All of the other books are either too long, too polemical, or too unreadable. This one is succinct, rigorous, and a breeze.
I will close with this: I wish, I truly, truly wish deep down with all my heart, that one day all academics will treat their writing with this level of care and attention. It shouldn't take a (perceived) computing emergency to force people to care about their message being understood. All academics should strive to be intelligible all the time. May this book be a proof by example: it's possible to talk about important, complex things AND construct beautiful sentences. Hallelujah!!
To be sure, I think a lot of the arguments are overblown. I don't think we're in some apocalyptic mega-emergency here with AI and other digital tools. I think these technologies have serious problems, and these problems have been increasingly discussed (and in some cases, addressed) over the last five years. Once you point out that an algorithm is structurally biased in some way, the solution is to figure out how to eliminate that bias—whether that means having a more diverse workforce or a more diverse data training set—not pull the fire alarm and threaten to blow up the entire enterprise.
That said, I think the historical and sociological work that went into this book is top-notch. If you want to understand the hoopla around tech, AI, privacy, and the internet at large, you should start here. All of the other books are either too long, too polemical, or too unreadable. This one is succinct, rigorous, and a breeze.
I will close with this: I wish, I truly, truly wish deep down with all my heart, that one day all academics will treat their writing with this level of care and attention. It shouldn't take a (perceived) computing emergency to force people to care about their message being understood. All academics should strive to be intelligible all the time. May this book be a proof by example: it's possible to talk about important, complex things AND construct beautiful sentences. Hallelujah!!
April 22, 2021
I'm taking off 3 stars for approving Twitter&Facebook's actions in banning an acting POTUS's accounts and saying this:
- 'one of the most dangerous presidents in US history'. Uh-huh, right. And Biden isn't? Or the POTUSes who started a bunch of wars in a bunch of countries, incl. Ukraine and Arabic ones?
A book on IT should be a book on IT not an inbuilt propaganda vessel.
- 'one of the most dangerous presidents in US history'. Uh-huh, right. And Biden isn't? Or the POTUSes who started a bunch of wars in a bunch of countries, incl. Ukraine and Arabic ones?
A book on IT should be a book on IT not an inbuilt propaganda vessel.
December 29, 2021
Tons of fascinating insights into how technology is changing the world (and conversely, how the world is shaping technology) in ways that we might not expect. If you read this book and learn nothing, you're either exceptionally brilliant (because you knew it all already) or exceptionally dense (because nothing penetrated your skull). I imagine someone has read this and said "this should be required reading for all tech workers," but as someone in the humanities, I think it's equally important that people in the humanities should read this. For too long we have abdicated our intellectual responsibility, leaving all the decision-making in realms of technology to the technologists. The technologists may not want to hear what we have to say, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't say it. For too long, people in the humanities have been allowed to use "I don't understand that technology" as a badge of honor, rather than the mark of shame it should be. Just as there are calls for technologists to learn something of the humanities, people in the humanities must learn something of technology. To do otherwise is to let the technologists (continue to) believe that a handful of dimly-remembered history and literature courses have taught them everything necessary of our fields.
October 15, 2022
Some nice histories and explanations of why specific contemporary technologies include legacy biases. Much handwringing, few solutions.
The book makes a good effort to dispel the notion of technology platforms and infrastructure as detached from human labour.
The afterword(s) make grand statements about our collective impending doom and how bad things could get, but shrug off suggesting a remedy to ‘the next 50 years’.
The book makes a good effort to dispel the notion of technology platforms and infrastructure as detached from human labour.
The afterword(s) make grand statements about our collective impending doom and how bad things could get, but shrug off suggesting a remedy to ‘the next 50 years’.
December 30, 2021
Trying my best to avoid spoilers.
An outstanding overview of historical reasons which have led to the current state of the industry.
Anybody with even a slightest responsibility, and that in essence means just about everyone, should catch up to avoid reinforcing the negative consequences which have accrued over more than a century.
An outstanding overview of historical reasons which have led to the current state of the industry.
Anybody with even a slightest responsibility, and that in essence means just about everyone, should catch up to avoid reinforcing the negative consequences which have accrued over more than a century.
November 7, 2021
Well written no doubt. If this book is used in an academic setting I would be disagreeing with the teacher all the time. Many of the facts in this book are accurate, but draw conclusions that are entirely politically motivated. That is where I would fundamentally disagree. It raisises many good points... But basically sounds an alarm that is too shrill, and too leftist.
July 18, 2025
Although I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about the social and historical sides of information and communications technologies, I think the book could’ve done a better job of writing in an accessible manner, so that it’s intended reader (the public? the lay people?) can actually understand it. Being rigorous, being serious ("no-nonsense," as one of the editors claims), these qualities are not in conflict with being understandable. But I do appreciate that all the chapters are specifically written, or at least tailored or re-edited, to suit the theme of this book. I also like that the chapters are in conversation with each other as they often cite each other. As someone who used to do research in the field of Science and Technology Studies, most information in the book isn't new to me. Yet in today’s crazy era of “artificial intelligence,” the stories in this book haven’t grown old.
May 23, 2021
Great piece of book about other aspects of technology that we don't consider important in everyday life. How QWERTY keyboard could affect how more complex languages could have input systems for computers, how discrimination of women destroyed UK-s leading position in computerization, is virtual really virtual. This books looks behind techno-utopia which magically solves all our problems, but misses that it might create some new ones or amplify existing ones. This book is not about how bad computers are but rather aspect we should consider when implementing new technologies. And yes we cannot close down on teaching of humanities. This book is a great example how we need different views to really gain benefits from technology.
September 28, 2024
Mixed bag. It's a collection of essays about the problematic history and current (at time of publication) state of computing and technology with a few standout chapters, a few middling chapters, and a few chapters that, for me were barely readable because the author insisted on taking a sudden deep dive into the esoteric or an examination of symbolic programming syntax. I took some good notes, and it has inspired me to explore some topics in more detail, but overall, this was too long and not as cohesive as it could have been. It has about 5 different concluding chapters, which leaves the reader wondering if it will ever end.
June 6, 2021
I owe this a long, thoughtful review, but a placeholder is all you're getting for now. Being a liberal and a technologist, this ought to be right up my alley. In fact, I was so enamored of the idea of the book that I bought it twice: first ordering a paperback, then before it arrived, forgetting I had ordered it and buying a Kindle edition. The first third, though, really failed to close the deal with me; there was a lot of fussing and ranting, but not a lot of actionable stuff. After that, though, it improved dramatically.
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January 27, 2021《Your Computer Is on Fire》敲响了警钟：数十年来，人们一直被技术乌托邦主义和中立性的叙述所迷惑，人们正在醒悟过来，看到硅谷主导的技术迷恋的后果。本书将焦点对准了我们技术系统中的不平等、边缘化和偏见，展示了它们不仅仅是需要修补的小错误，而是假定技术能够修复和控制社会的一部分思想。
《Your Computer Is on Fire》中的文章审视了我们的人类和计算基础设施是如何重叠的，展示了为什么集权的技术往往会削弱民主。这些做法往往被忽视，直到质疑它们如何塑造社会的代价时为时已晚。从高耗能的服务器到种族主义和性别歧视的算法，数字永远是IRL，以算法或在线发生的一切也影响着我们的线下生活。每篇文章都提出了理解和解决经常被忽视或误解的技术问题的行动路径。
《Your Computer Is on Fire》中的文章审视了我们的人类和计算基础设施是如何重叠的，展示了为什么集权的技术往往会削弱民主。这些做法往往被忽视，直到质疑它们如何塑造社会的代价时为时已晚。从高耗能的服务器到种族主义和性别歧视的算法，数字永远是IRL，以算法或在线发生的一切也影响着我们的线下生活。每篇文章都提出了理解和解决经常被忽视或误解的技术问题的行动路径。
November 4, 2021
Very good collection of essays, some of which I found extremely interesting - an introduction and an essay by Mar Hicks, the latter on the sexist history of computing in Britain, and one by Andrea Stanton on Arabic writing with typewriters and computers were my favorites - but others were also intriguing and informative.
January 4, 2024
Fantastic collection of essays exploring relationship between people and technology. Insightful, it goes meta (race, gender, and language bias of networks, keyboards, etc.) and goes quite specific (the IBM family and Siri). Very well put together, thought-provoking opening and conclusion.
July 22, 2021
Worth rereading.
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November 19, 2021https://librarianshipwreck.wordpress.... Read 18 review November 2021
November 23, 2021
An amazing read about issues in Computer Science!
December 3, 2021
Couple of really good chapters.
December 26, 2023
When objectivity of science interfere with the subjectivity of humanity and other theory— ish?
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews