Overview

In 2004, Kentaro Toyama, an award-winning computer scientist, moved to India to start a new research group for Microsoft. Its mission: to explore novel technological solutions to the world's persistent social problems. But after a decade of designing technologies for humanitarian causes, Toyama concluded that no technology, however dazzling, could cause social change on its own. Technologists and policy-makers love to boast about modern innovation, and in their excitement, they exuberantly tout technology's boon to society. But what have our gadgets actually accomplished? Over the last four decades, America saw an explosion of new technologies, but in that same period, the rate of poverty stagnated at a stubborn 13 percent, only to rise in the recent recession. So, a golden age of innovation in the world's most advanced country did nothing for our most prominent social ill. Toyama's warning resounds: Don't believe the hype! Technology is never the main driver of social progress. Geek Heresy inoculates us against the glib rhetoric of tech utopians by revealing that technology is only an amplifier of human conditions. By telling the moving stories of extraordinary people, Toyama shows that even in a world steeped in technology, social challenges are best met with deeply social solutions.

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"A white paper largely of interest to education theorists and aid specialists, with occasional asides for the Jaron Lanier/Nicholas Carr crowd.-- ""Kirkus"" ""High-tech insider Kentaro Toyama's compulsively readable manifesto will change minds about all those new technological quick-fixes for poverty."" -- ""William Easterly, professor of economics, New York University"" ""Toyama's research reminds us that there are very few one-size-fits-all solutions. If technology is going to improve the lives of the world's poorest, it must be grounded in a deep understanding of human behavior and an appreciation for cultural differences."" -- ""Bill Gates"" The book takes a spike-studded tire iron to the efforts by technology entrepreneurs and their enablers to reimagine how we eat, learn, heal, govern, and battle poverty."" -- ""New York Times"""

Author Information

Kentaro Toyama is the W. K. Kellogg Associate Professor of Community Information at the University of Michigan's School of Information. He is also coeditor in chief of the journal Information Technologies and International Development and cofounder of Microsoft Research India. Kentaro lives in Michigan. Sean Pratt (AEA/SAG/AFTRA) has been a working actor for over thirty years. Sean was a company member at the Pearl Theatre, an Off-Broadway classical repertory theater, and has also performed at numerous regional theaters around the country. He has appeared in major films, including Gods and Generals, Tuck Everlasting, and Iron Jawed Angels, and has hosted HGTV's Old Homes Restored and held supporting roles on the hit television shows Homicide, The District, and America's Most Wanted. An eight-time AudioFile Earphones Award winner, Sean has narrated for twenty years and has recorded over 850 books in just about every genre. He also teaches classes on and writes articles about the business of the Biz. Lloyd James has been narrating since 1996 and has recorded over six hundred books. He is a seven-time winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award and has twice been a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award.

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