Mindless: Why Smarter Machines are Making Dumber Humans

Head, Simon

ISBN 10: 0465018440 / ISBN 13: 9780465018444

Published by Basic Books, 2014

About this Item

Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!

Seller Inventory # S_478032575

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Mindless: Why Smarter Machines are Making Dumber Humans
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication Date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0465018440
• ISBN 13: 9780465018444
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

We live in the age of Computer Business Systems (CBSs) -- the highly complex, computer-intensive management programs on which large organizations increasingly rely. In Mindless, Simon Head argues that these systems have come to trump human expertise, dictating the goals and strategies of a wide array of businesses, and de-skilling the jobs of middle class workers in the process. CBSs are especially dysfunctional, Head argues, when they apply their disembodied expertise to transactions between humans, as in health care, education, customer relations, and human resources management. And yet there are industries with more human approaches, as Head illustrates with specific examples, whose lead we must follow and extend to the mainstream American economy.

Mindless illustrates the shortcomings of CBS, providing an in-depth and disturbing look at how human dignity is slipping as we become cogs on a white collar assembly line.

About the Author

Simon Head, a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University and Senior Member of St. Antony's College at Oxford University, serves as the Director of Programs at the New York Review of Books Foundation. He divides his time between Oxford, England and New York.