Too Much Magic: Pulling the Plug on the Cult of Tech

An Irreverent Cultural History of This Digital Life

Too Much Magic is the story of how venture capital, media moguls and marketeers use digital magic to distract us, invade our privacy, corrupt democracy, distort our human values, and sell us things that we don't need.

Authored by Silicon Valley marketing-communications guru Jason Benlevi, Too Much Magic looks at all aspects of our emerging digital lifestyle, how it is changing us, and who it is that really benefits.

We have a long love/hate relationship with technology. However, the problem is usually not technology itself, but rather the powers that are deciding its course. The conflict is apparent when we witness people standing in line overnight to buy the newest tech gadget, while at the same time every film about the future from Metropolis to Blade Runner to Avatar depicts a dystopia that has been enabled by technology.

Originally, the Mac and personal computing revolution were about self-empowerment, and the Internet was a utility for people to share knowledge. Now that revolution is in danger of being turned against us. Too Much Magic explains how the Cult of Tech, a convergence of business, media and academic interests, is infiltrating every aspect of our lives through clever marketing and digital convergence.

Too Much Magic examines what being digital really means. The book details historic changes in our entertainment, personal communications, play time, public affairs and social interactions. It also sounds an alarm on stealthy and escalating attacks upon our basic freedoms.

Benlevi tells readers what the powers-that-be don t want them to know about their increasingly digital lives. Prescriptively, Too Much Magic points out ways we can choose to delightfully disengage from technologies and exactly what we each can do to preserve our humanity, independence and creativity all of which could vanish through deceptive acts of digital magic.

Although the book s topic is serious, its tone is bright and irreverent, offering a refreshing contrarian viewpoint that comes from a deep understanding of technology, media, and culture. Too Much Magic is a unique blend of history, social criticism, and entertainment for the digital age.

Jason Benlevi has spent the past decades working with the leading technology companies in Silicon Valley and beyond. As a creative director, speechwriter and scriptwriter for  Apple, Microsoft, Sun, HP, Sony, Sega and Cisco he has sold the dream of the digital life. Now he has taken a critical look questioning whether we have created a digital dream or a nightmare.

Born in Brooklyn and transplanted against his will at a young age to Southern California, he found himself channeled into the sciences by the launch of Sputnik and the L.A. school system. It was a trajectory that intersected with the twin evils of geometry class and the Vietnam War (which did unsavory things through science.)

From that point forward Benlevi was on a different course, one that ultimately won him the disaffection of the L.A. school system and an escape to the San Francisco Bay Area. Living a dual academic life in creative arts/film school and computer geekiness, Jason authored what was probably the first feature film about computer hackers, well in advance of anyone in Hollywood having the vaguest idea what he was talking about. This was years before War Games and Sneakers (which no one remembers anyway.)

Engaged in numerous creative ventures, he kept tinkering with electronics and computers. Deciding that he couldn't live on art alone, or afford the electronics, Jason became involved in advertising, where creative ideas are sent to die, but at least the artists and writers get paid. The timing was fortuitous since he was among the few creative individuals who enjoyed talking to engineers and could translate what they'd say into language that any normal TV-watching, newspaper-reading individual could easily understand.

In past decades, while working at the will of the world's leading technology companies, he has blogged heavily under aliases about politics, culture and technology. Now he has summoned the courage and recklessness to put a name to his work...and an end to his career.