It's called: "The Unofficial I Hate Computer Book".
It was written in 1984, and like the George Orwell's book by that name, it is a dystopian view of technology.
The back cover says:
Computer haters of the world unite: It's time to recognize and avenge the wonderful advances we've made thanks to computers--excessive eyestrain and headaches, irritating beeping noises, a one-ton printout where once there was a six-page report, a "simple" programming language you can't understand without five handbooks, a dictionary, and a math degree.The book goes on with illustration after illustration of unadulterated computer hate and associated violence.
- Dogs dumping on it (see cover)
- Contests to smash it with a hammer
- Hara-kiri (suicide with a knife) into it
- Skeet shooting computers that are flung into the air
- Shotput with a computer
- Tanks rolling over them
- Sinking it in water with a heavy anvil
- Boxer practicing his punches on it
- Setting it ablaze with gasoline
- And on and on, page after hate-filled page.
So in the last 34-years, have we solved all the annoyances and complexity with computers and automation?
Do the benefits of technology outway the costs and risks across-the-board?
How do security and privacy play in the equation?
I wonder what the authors and readers back then would think of computers, tablets, smartphones and the Internet and apps nowadays--especially where we can't live without them at all. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)