Overconnected

The Promise and Threat of the Internet

By: William Davidow

Narrated by: L. J Ganser

In Overconnected, Bill Davidow explains how the almost miraculous success of the Internet in connecting the world through the Worldwide Web has also created a unique set of hazards, in effect overconnecting us, with the direst of consequences.

The benefits of our recently arrived-at state of connectivity have been myriad - from the ease with which it has been possible to buy a new house to the convenience of borrowing and investing money profitably. But the luxuries of the connected age have taken on a momentum all of their own. By counter-intuitively anatomizing how being overconnected tends to create systems of positive feedback that have largely negative consequences, Davidow explains everything from the recent subprime mortgage crisis to the meltdown of Iceland, from the loss of people's privacy to the spectacular fall of the stock market - all because we were so miraculously wired together.

Explaining how such symptoms of Internet connection as unforeseeable accidents and thought contagions acted to accelerate the downfall and make us permanently vulnerable to catastrophe, Davidow places our recent experience in historical perspective and offers a set of practical steps to minimize similar disasters in the future.

©2011 William H. Davidow (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Overconnected has the wonderful effect of explaining seemingly unrelated problems in a way that instantly makes sense once it is pointed out, and that also suggests feasible corrections. One of the pioneers of the modern technology shows how the unanticipated effects of the Internet are distorting economics, politics, international relations, and individual lives. The book is clear, original, and worth being widely read.” (James Fallows, author and National Correspondent for The Atlantic)

"The technology genie is out of the bottle.... [Overconnected] is a great read that is part historical, part anecdotal.... [T]he book addresses a universal audience. Its key message is really to anyone who uses technology." (Paul Otinelli, CEO, Intel Corporation)