“More than machinery we need humanity” – The NSA, Verizon, Prism, and You
I’m definitely adding LibrarianShipwreck to my must-read list!
The real scandal is not that the NSA obtained millions of phone numbers from Verizon, it is not that through Prism the government spied on people online, it isn’t even that the technology companies went along with all of this. It is that we adjusted ourselves to a technological society without pausing to confront that all of the previously mentioned threats would be become a reality under the aegis of technology. Anger is justified, but we must reserve some of this anger for ourselves, instead of just directing it at the venal technocrats who populate political office and the ethically stunted tinkerers who populate Silicon Valley.
Michael Sauers is currently the Director of Technology for Do Space in Omaha, NE. Michael has been training librarians in technology for the past twenty years and has also been a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, serials cataloger, technology consultant, and bookseller since earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany’s School of Information Science and Policy. Michael has also written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and his fourteenth book, Emerging Technologies: A Primer for Librarians (w/ Jennifer Koerber) was published in May 2015 and more books are on the way. In his spare time he blogs at travelinlibrarian.info, runs The Collector’s Guide to Dean Koontz Web site, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
View all posts by Michael Sauers
I’m definitely adding LibrarianShipwreck to my must-read list!