The Socialist Computer: Life, Work and Technology As if Profit Didn't Matter Book

The Socialist Computer is a unique and highly topical analysis of capitalism and technology. It considers the kind of technologies, lives and world we would have if we took human equality seriously. Would we have iPhones? What happened to the promise of a zero-hour working day, in a computerised world of low-impact abundance? Taking global electronics as his starting point, using new insights from history, psychology, information economics and anthropology, Bob Hughes shows how inequality turns labour-saving technologies into engines of oppression and waste. He explores the computer's idealistic, collaborative and socialist roots: the forgotten achievements of 'cybernetic socialism' in the Soviet Union, Scandinavia and Allende's Chile. The Socialist Computer is an entertaining and ground-breaking introduction to the politics of information technology and how it can be part of the struggle for a better world.Read More