Author Event: Paulina Borsook – Cyberselfish

Twenty-six years after its original publication, Borsook’s “smart, funny and irreverent” (The New York Times) critique of high-tech has proved a prescient assessment of a toxic ethos which has seeped into every corner of our world.

Cyberselfish saw the warning signs about a culture violently lacking in compassion, tremendously opposed to regulation, more comfortable with computers than people, and surprisingly ignorant. An ironic position, given this cohort was perhaps the single biggest recipient of the greatest government subsidy of technology and expansion in history. But it is also a culture that believes in Ayn Rand and the stockholder theory of value and acts as if privacy isn’t for the Little People.

Borsook foresaw that once tech boomed to new heights of financial success, those at the helm would feel their achievement in one sphere should result in greater power and influence in others. Today, as titans of the tech world have inserted themselves even further into all aspects of society, Borsook’s insights have become more universally applicable than even she could have imagined. But what will result if the people who shape public policy know nothing about history or political science or, most importantly, how to interact with other humans? Cyberselfish posits this is the true revenge of the nerds.