This is an important and prophetic book - required reading for both consumers and creators of information technologies. As a Silicon Valley insider, West examines surveillance technologies, biometrics, body-worn computers, and other technologies that encourage the increased integration of the human body with digital devices. This work is a much-needed call for ethical dialogue among the industry leaders, research and development institutions, and the communities that these technologies will inevitably affect. The Loka Institute and Author of Democracy and Technology Dr. Cynthia K. West examines the intersection of information technologies, power, people, and bodies. Not only are information technologies bringing positive changes, technologies are embedded in what Michel Foucault calls power networks.
Information technologies inherit influences from prior historical, cultural, and social events.
West's research examines how information technologies are on a path of creating efficiency, productivity, profitability, surveillance, and control. Human-machine interface technologies are merging more and more with physical bodies. Surveillance technologies are supervising human activities in an increasingly panoptic fashion. West calls for an ethics dialogue not only among digerati within the industry but also a dialogue which allows for public participation. West concludes by offering six levels of active participation for positive change.