Big tech and a world without mind

Listeners at Readers Corner often ask where we get the ideas for our interviews. Publishers do send copies of new books in hopes they will generate an interview with the author, but I find most of the books visiting bookstores like Rediscovered Books or Barnes and Noble. When on the road, I seldom miss the opportunity to visit an independent bookstore nearby to support.

In preparing for the interview, there is no substitute for the real thing, the book itself. That digital device that stores books and turns pages with the click of a button is no substitute for the paper book in hand. I am a serial under-liner, especially when reading a book in preparation for an interview at Readers Corner. I can read the book the first time, then go back and pick up those underlines for possible questions of the author.

As we approach the holiday season, it’s a great time to think about giving the gift of a book, and I do mean a book with paper pages as opposed to a Kindle. No, you are not reading the work of an old Luddite from another century who just isn’t hip enough to understand the joys and convenience of reading on a Kindle.

To the contrary, I own a Kindle and have enough books on it that should last me at least a quarter of a century past my death. Occasionally, I will read a novel on my Kindle, especially when traveling and not caring to take the bulkier book on the plane.

As I think about my future reads, however, I’ve been rethinking what might be the convenience of the Kindle and returning full time to the paper book, either hard cover or paperback. The impetus for my decision is a book by Franklin Foer, a staff writer at The Atlantic, “World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech.”

My interview with Foer will be featured on Readers Corner early next year.

Foer’s book is a passionate and informed broadside against the Big Four tech companies, Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple, and how they are insinuating themselves into our lives and robbing us of our privacy. According to Foer, the infamous algorithm is manipulating us into buying what tech wants us to buy and, worse yet, algorithms are making choices for us as we surrender our free will to companies like Amazon.

Those are pretty strong words, and I’m sure it doesn’t feel that way as we navigate the Internet on Cyber Monday to find the very best shopping deals. In fact, Foer may be overstating his case at this point in the history of artificial intelligence, but in the not-too-distant future, there may be a moment when we realize we are captives of a being that is not human and beyond our control.

For those of us who feel that our digital existence is impinging on our humanity and substituting our good judgment for that of an algorithm, what is there to do about it? Foer proposes a Data Protection Authority, similar to the Federal Trade Commission that evaluates mergers to preserve low prices and economic efficiency. But in this case, the Data Protection Authority would review mergers to protect privacy and the free flow of information. With calls for the breakup of Facebook, this proposal makes sense as citizens demand that they own their own data and that tech giants like Facebook have a responsibility to treat such data with the greatest care.

A more personal and immediate way of escaping the clutches of Big Tech is what Foer did recently. He abandoned his Kindle so, as he claims, tech companies could not completely absorb the totality of his human existence and he returned to what he describes as “one of the few slivers of life that they can’t fully integrate.” He now reads those books you find in libraries and bookstores.

Retiring the Kindle may not be enough to shut down the Kindle industry, but if you care to act on principle, Amazon has engaged in business practices that do not deserve readers’ complicity. Anyone who cares about the future of the book, the author or her livelihood should know that Bezos and Amazon have little appreciation for the creative process, and pricing policies of Amazon have cut significantly into authors’ income.

We may not dredge up much sympathy for best-selling authors like Stephen King or John Grisham, but most authors are far from their wealth, and they find their works seriously undervalued by Amazon. Needless to say, that directly affects their productivity and our choices of fine literature.

Competitive pricing by Amazon may knock a few dollars off a book sale, but Foer brings to light some nefarious strategies designed to bring publishers to their economic knees when negotiating access to the Amazon distribution system. And when publishers suffer financially, it is passed right on to the author.

It’s not just about authors’ economic welfare. The Atlantic reported recently that worker safety has been found lacking at Amazon centers. We may rejoice when our Amazon package is delivered in 48 hours, but behind that achievement is a brutal quota system with high-tech surveillance that leads to serious worker injuries as they rush to meet their goals. Without union protection, Amazon workers may be paying the heaviest price for our speedy Amazon deliveries.

Foer calls Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon the monopolists of the mind as they collapse privacy and shred the principles that protect our individuality. Take a page out of Foer’s book, resist the temptation to download and buy a book with real pages at a bookstore this season. We have to start somewhere.