Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness After the Digital Explosion

Wherever you go...whatever you say, write, photograph, or buy...whatever prescriptions you take, or ATM withdrawals you make...you are generating information. That information can be captured, digitized, retrieved, and copied -anywhere on Earth, instantly. Sophisticated computers can increasingly uncover meaning in those digital traces-understanding, anticipating, and influencingyou as never before.

Is this utopia? Or the dawning of a 1984/Brave New World horror world? Whatever you call it, it's happening. What kind of world are we creating? What will it be like to live there? Blown to Bits offers powerful and controversial answers to these questions-and give you the knowledge you need to help shape your own digital future, not let others do it for you. Building on their pioneering joint MIT/Harvard course, the authors reveal how the digital revolution is changing everything, in ways that are stunning even the most informed experts.

You'll discover ten paradoxical truths about digital data-and learn how those truths are overturning centuries-old assumptions about privacy, identity, and personal control.