Conference noted::hackers_v1

156.0. "Book review: THE SECOND SELF" by SYZYGY::SOPKA () Sat Aug 31 1985 20:27

from the ACM's COMPUTING REVIEWS for August 1985:

THE SECOND SELF: COMPUTERS AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT
by Sherry Turkle
Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, NY, 1984
352 pp.,  $17.95,  ISBN 0-671-46848-0

Sherry Turkle is a sociologist concerned with how ideas move out from 
"a sophisticated technical world" into the general culture.  The present
study treats an instance of this topic: the way in which individual 
contact with computers "affects the way that we think, especially the
way we think about ourselves" (p.13).  With excellent connections to the
"sophisticated technical world" of the computer (she is a member of MIT's
Program for Science, Technology, and Culture), Turkle was well placed to
explore this question.  Starting at MIT and Harvard, and moving outward 
to nodes of various computer subcultures, she conducted hundreds of 
detailed interviews over a period of six years.  Her book consists of 
detailed recapitulations and analyses of a selection of these interviews,
interspersed with generalizations derived from them.

Each chapter (except for two final, speculative ones) examines a particular
group of computer users, from small children through researchers in 
artificial intelligence.  The first several chapters --- which comprise
the freshest and most interesting material in the book --- treat groups
of young people, from preschoolers responding to computerized toys to
adolescent programmers and video-game players.  The unifying concern of
these chapters is the ways in which computers contribute to the child's
developing sense of the world and himself.  For very young children, the
"intelligent" responses of computerized toys tend to complicate and 
sophisticate the crucial early process of distinguishing what is alive 
--- and human --- from what is not.  For older children, the computer's 
main role is often in consolidating or extending the child's sense of 
his or her identity (thus, "the second self").  Virtuosity as a LOGO 
programmer gives some children a sense of self-worth and a certain 
standing among their peers; others project their personalities onto 
the computer, and thus learn to know themselves through examining their 
reflection in it.  For other, lonely children, the computer becomes their 
only friend.

For younger children, Turkle views these relationships as generally 
healthy: the computer powerfully facilitates the process of self-
definition and self-expression, and reinforces the child's sense of 
the importance of 'feelings' as a defining element in the "human."
With some children, though, and especially with adolescents and some
adults, the seductions of the machine are dangerous.  For the addicted
video-game player or the hacker (the subject of a later chapter), the
price of the sense of power provided by the computer can be increasing
isolation and arrested development.  For others, the tendency to under-
stand human mental functioning in terms of computer analogues can
reinforce a cynical and desponding view of men as "meat machines."

Concentration on the disturbing, fascinating, and thought-provoking
nature of computers gives this book a singular and somewhat disturbing
appeal.  For example, Weizenbaum gave passionate descriptions of the
hacker phenomenon and of the tendency to see ourselves as machines [1],
and Kidder's tale of a specific project was almost too realistic in its
portrayal of the potentially addictive nature of technology [2].  But
Turkle's book focuses solely on what she calls the "evocative" aspects
of the technology.  Further, it is not based on a few anecdotes, but on
an extended social-scientific study.  In particular, the material dealing
with children's reactions to computers seems based on enough cases to be
representative of real phenomena.  At the same time, the book could have
been stronger, though less popularly attractive, if it had included an
even more careful assessment of evidence; a determination of how wide-
spread some of the phenomena are; and what factors, other than mere
exposure to the technology, bear on them.  Nonetheless, this is an
intriguing and important book, which should significantly affect future
studies of the social impact of computers.  It can profitably be read by
most of us who use and determine the use of computers.

    					--- D. T. Barnard and G. M. Logan,
    					    Kingston, Ontario, Canada

    			References
[1] Weizenbaum, J.  COMPUTER POWER AND HUMAN REASON: FROM JUDGEMENT TO
    CALCULATION,  W. H. Freeman & Co., San Francisco,  1976
[2] Kidder, T.  THE SOUL OF A NEW MACHINE, 
    Little, Brown, Boston,  1981