Summary Of The Glass Cage By Nicholas Car

1619 Words7 Pages

In the book, The Glass Cage: How Our Computers Are Changing Us, by Nicholas Carr is about the existence of automation and technology that are changing and affecting the lives of humans. In the debate of automation in the book, Carr defines automation as “the use of computers and software to do things we used to ourselves” (1). With the definition of automation in mind, there are positive and negative connotations about automation that Carr argue and inserts himself in his book.
In chapter 1, “Passengers”, Carr introduces two distinct types of knowledge, tacit and explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is knowledge operated at a subconscious level in which it is the things that are done without thinking (9). Explicit knowledge is knowledge process down by …show more content…

Most people assume that automation does not alter or change the work of a job or the worker, but Carr implies that this is a substitution myth in which he disagrees to this myth. Carr states “Automation remakes both work and worker”, meaning that automation does alter humans regarding their work and themselves – their behaviors, roles, attitudes, and skills (67). Furthering his debate, Carr suggest with the substitution myth of automation consciously affects humans to do their job. He introduces that automation victimize a person creating a sense of automation complacency and bias. Automation complacency is defined by Carr as a “false sense of security” provided by automation – allowing automation to drift human attention away (67). Automation bias goes hand with automation compliancy – the bias that humans ignore the “undo weight to automation” when it fails by ignoring its errors (69). Carr argues that as automation improves the compliancy and bias of automation becomes severe for humans by hindering their skills and conscious