In his Introduction to this beautifully curated collection of essays, Steven Johnson heralds the arrival of a new generation of technology writing.\u00a0 Whether it is Nicholas Carr worrying that Google is making us stupid, Dana Goodyear chronicling the rise of the cellphone novel, Andrew Sullivan explaining the rewards of blogging, Dalton Conley lamenting the sprawling nature of work in the information age, or Clay Shirky marveling at the \u201ccognitive surplus\u201d unleashed by the decline of the TV sitcom, this new generation does not waste time speculating about the future.\u00a0 Its attitude seems to be: Who needs the future? The present is plenty interesting on its own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In his Introduction to this beautifully curated collection of essays, Steven Johnson heralds the arrival of a new generation of technology writing.\u00a0 Whether it is Nicholas Carr worrying that Google is making us stupid, Dana Goodyear chronicling the rise of the cellphone novel, Andrew Sullivan explaining the rewards of blogging, Dalton Conley lamenting the sprawling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","footnotes":""},"msr-content-type":[3],"msr-research-highlight":[],"research-area":[13559],"msr-publication-type":[193721],"msr-product-type":[],"msr-focus-area":[],"msr-platform":[],"msr-download-source":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-post-option":[],"msr-field-of-study":[],"msr-conference":[],"msr-journal":[],"msr-impact-theme":[],"msr-pillar":[],"class_list":["post-158468","msr-research-item","type-msr-research-item","status-publish","hentry","msr-research-area-social-sciences","msr-locale-en_us"],"msr_publishername":"Microsoft Research","msr_edition":"","msr_affiliation":"","msr_published_date":"2009-01-01","msr_host":"","msr_duration":"","msr_version":"","msr_speaker":"","msr_other_contributors":"","msr_booktitle":"The Best Technology Writing 2009","msr_pages_string":"101-106","msr_chapter":"","msr_isbn":"","msr_journal":"","msr_volume":"","msr_number":"","msr_editors":"","msr_series":"","msr_issue":"","msr_organization":"","msr_how_published":"","msr_notes":"","msr_highlight_text":"","msr_release_tracker_id":"","msr_original_fields_of_study":"","msr_download_urls":"","msr_external_url":"","msr_secondary_video_url":"","msr_longbiography":"","msr_microsoftintellectualproperty":1,"msr_main_download":"","msr_publicationurl":"http:\/\/www.Alpha XR\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0300154100\/apophenia-20","msr_doi":"","msr_publication_uploader":[{"type":"url","title":"http:\/\/www.Alpha XR\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0300154100\/apophenia-20","viewUrl":false,"id":false,"label_id":0}],"msr_related_uploader":"","msr_attachments":[{"id":0,"url":"http:\/\/www.Alpha XR\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0300154100\/apophenia-20"}],"msr-author-ordering":[{"type":"user_nicename","value":"dmb","user_id":31651,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=dmb"}],"msr_impact_theme":[],"msr_research_lab":[199563],"msr_event":[],"msr_group":[332906],"msr_project":[170498],"publication":[],"video":[],"download":[],"msr_publication_type":"inbook","related_content":{"projects":[{"ID":170498,"post_title":"Social Media Collective","post_name":"social-media-collective","post_type":"msr-project","post_date":"2010-07-06 19:46:44","post_modified":"2023-04-14 15:38:19","post_status":"publish","permalink":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/project\/social-media-collective\/","post_excerpt":"The mission of the SMC is first and foremost\u00a0to bring critical and analytical lenses to contemporary sociotechnical systems, particularly around media, expertise, labor, and publics. 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