The High Cost of High Tech: The Dark Side of the Chip

Lenny Siegel is a long time investigator of the inherent costs of the 20th and 21st Century economic structure.

Two recognized authorities on the booming world of high tech put their years of Silicon Valley surveillance on the line in this informative, sometimes eye-opening evaluation of the computer revolution. Markoff is the San Francisco Examiner's Silicon Valley reporter; Siegel, a crusader for Silicon Valley safety and health standards, has been described as the Valley's "resident gadfly." Here they produce an expose of the perils, present and potential, in the burgeoning Age of the Chipan expose so informed, restrained and evenhanded that it attains a powerful credibility. They range through quietly horrific descriptions of the electronic arms-race under way; discussions of the negative impact of data banks on our privacy, of computer learning on education, of industrial wipeouts and job losses. Their revelations about the immense toxicity associated with the "clean" high-tech industry will shock readers. A view of America at bay in a worldwide race for high-tech supremacy caps the book. November 6
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Siegal and Markoff provide a grim picture of the costs incurred to date in the development of the current state of computer-based information technology. The pollution of the Silicon Valley, the exploitation of the minority groups used to assemble computer chips, the monopolization of technology direction and utilization by the military, and numerous other problems are dealt with at length. The book portrays most of the history of the technology in a negative light but the authors do not feel the situation is hopeless. Rather, while "the social costs of the continuing spread and evolution of high technology are great, . . . they are by no means inevitable." However, the authors caution, to reap the full benefits of information technology, our society in general must develop an understanding of the impact and potential, positive and negative, of computers and microelectronics. Hilary D. Burton, Livermore National Labs., Livermore, Cal.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.