Over the past few weeks, I’ve been starting and stopping a few books—one of them being The Big Switch by Nicholas Carr. Today, I finally finished it. Carr does an excellent job drawing parallels between the rise of America’s electrical power grid and the emergence of cloud computing.
While I appreciate Carr’s insight into cloud computing and how software development may evolve in the near future, I was taken aback when the book shifted to predicting inevitable computer dominance—especially as we integrate technology more deeply into our lives, even biologically. Carr is critical of the ways marketers use data today and offers a somewhat unsettling forecast of where that might lead.
He writes:
Every time we read a page of text or click on a link or watch a video, every time we put something in a shopping cart or perform a search, every time we send an email or chat in an instant-messaging window, we are filling in a ‘form for the record’… we’re often unaware of the threads we’re spinning and how and by whom they’re being manipulated. And even if we were conscious of being monitored or controlled, we might not care. After all, we also benefit from the personalization that the Internet makes possible—it makes us more perfect consumers and workers. We accept greater control in return for greater convenience. The spider’s web is made to measure, and we’re not unhappy inside it.
Nicholas Carr
I find manipulation and control far too strong here. When I use customer data to predict what someone may want, I’m not forcing or deceiving them into making a purchase. In exchange for their data, I’m simply trying to match them with what they’re already looking for. That’s efficiency, not coercion.
Control would imply that an interface could override free will, which is an absurd notion. Are we really to believe that people online are helpless against a well-placed text ad? If that were true, advertising click-through rates wouldn’t still be in the single digits.
As for the idea of merging man and machine, I’m optimistic. Imagine being able to search the web without a keyboard or internet connection. Diabetics could monitor their blood sugar levels and instantly find the best foods to eat. People on diets could track calories or Weight Watchers points in real time.
The truth is, humans have never had perfect control over themselves, let alone over artificial intelligence. We already see extremes—health enthusiasts who damage their bodies, athletes who overtrain, addicts who sacrifice everything for their fix. We are imperfect machines striving for improvement and often missing the mark.
To me, the idea of bypassing a keyboard and plugging in to the internet isn’t alarming. Control, in the human sense, has never been absolute, and I don’t believe man-made machines will ever surpass the complexity and resilience of what God has created.
The Big Switch is a worthwhile read, and I recommend it. Carr raises essential questions about the future of AI, but his view strikes me as alarmist. I prefer to see the possibilities—how technology could enhance human interaction, boost productivity, and improve our quality of life.
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