These firms sell their efficiency and purport to make the world a better place, but what they have done instead is to enable an intoxicating level of daily convenience. We shop with Amazon, socialize on Facebook, turn to Apple for entertainment, and rely on Google for information. Without pausing to consider the cost, the world has rushed to embrace the products and services of four titanic corporations. This rapid change has imperiled the way we think. "Over the past few decades there has been a revolution in terms of who controls knowledge and information. Foer both indicts these companies, and shapes a path towards reining them in. Today's corporate giants want access to every facet of our identities and influence over every corner of our lives. This is not the path towards freedom and prosperity, but the total automation and homogenization of our social, political, and intellectual lives. Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon, he argues, are breaking laws intended to protect intellectual property and privacy. Elegantly tracing the intellectual history of computer science, Foer puts the DNA of the very idea of "tech" under the microscope.
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