The Silicon Jungle (ebook)

Argumento de The Silicon Jungle (ebook)

"The book's central message is fascinating. A company like Google, Baluja points out, has far more information on U.S. citizens than does the FBI and far fewer restrictions on how to use it. It's a chilling message in a fun package."--Kathleen Offenholley, Mathematics Teacher

"A cerebral, cautionary tale. Credible and scary."--Vint Cerf, Google Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist and one of the "Fathers of the Internet"

"At last, computer science has its equivalent to Scott Turow. Shumeet Baluja not only tells a compelling story, but as an expert in data mining, he also knows his stuff. His story shows how powerful and far-reaching modern search technology can be, and hence, potentially dangerous if not properly controlled. A techno-thriller with a disturbing message."--Keith Devlin, author of The Unfinished Game: Pascal, Fermat, and the Seventeenth-Century Letter that Made the World Modern

"Clever and prophetic. The Silicon Jungle will be required reading from Silicon Valley to Washington, DC."--Marc Rotenberg, Electronic Privacy Information Center

"The Silicon Jungle is an engaging and welcome addition to the literature of dystopia. The connections drawn between people, places, products, and internet usage, as well as the data-mining scientists in this suspenseful and alarming novel, show us that the decline of individual freedoms can occur not through weapons and coups, but through profiles germinated from algorithmic seeds."--Gary T. Marx, author of Undercover: Police Surveillance in America

"This novel will open your eyes to issues of privacy on the internet and to the hazards of placing uncritical, blind trust in the people overseeing this vast enterprise. Baluja tells a story about something that could happen to any of us--if you're even modestly concerned about information privacy, this is an important book to read."--Roy Maxion, Carnegie Mellon University

"The Silicon Jungle expertly explores a major 'what if' that should interest anyone who has ever used a cell phone or Wi-Fi connection, or typed a keystroke on a computer connected to the internet. The story is intriguing, well researched, well written, and frighteningly probable. A delightfully entertaining and thought-provoking read for all."--Retired Senior Official, National Security Agency

"This novel does an excellent job of introducing the ideas behind data mining and provides greater insight into the process than anything I have seen in fiction. The book presents a number of important issues, both technical and social."--Joseph D. Sloan, Wofford College

"In the era of the ubiquitous web company, The Silicon Jungle provides ample food for thought."--Zena Iovino, New Scientist

"[F]righteningly convincing. . . . The read is quick, the questions will linger, and the ideas are so intriguing. . . . Baluja simplifies the abstract world of tech-speak for the rest of us while aiming to do for the Internet what Upton Sinclair's The Jungle did for the meat industry: make readers reconsider its safety. For fans of intelligent thrillers."--Stephen Morrow, Library Journal

"Baluja's clever, cynical debut explores the frightening possibilities of data mining. . . . A nod to Upton Sinclair's muckraking The Jungle, which scared its readers into regulating the meat-packing industry, this lively if depressing novel suggests that computer snooping is too seductive to control, despite the consequences."--Publishers Weekly

Co-Winner of the 2012 Mary Shelley Award for Outstanding Fictional Work, Media Ecology Association

"[T]his cautionary tale is fascinating for its exploration of technology as a conduit for crime."--Michele Leber, Booklist Online0Preface xi
Endings 1
Anklets 3
Anthropologists in the Midst 10
Mollycoddle 13
Touchpoints 19
Checking In 26
Working 9 to 4 28
Predicting the Future and 38 Needles 33
Contact 39

Two Geeks in a Pod 47
An Understatement 53
Euphoria and Diet Pills 61
To Better Days 70
Marathon 75
The Life and Soul of an Intern 81
Candid Cameras 85
Episodes 89
Liberal Food and Even More Liberal Activism 92
Subjects 100

Newsworthy 105
Patience 110
Hypergrowth 113
Little Pink Houses 117
Truth, Lies, and Algorithms 122
Negotiations and Herding Cats 129
The JENNY Discovery 133
I Dream of JENNY 138
A Five-Step Program: Hallucinations and Archetypes 143
Over-Deliver 150

A Life Changed in Four Phone Calls 154
Giving Thanks 160
A Drive through the Country 166
Control 171
A Tale of Two Tenures 178
Prelude to Pie 183
The Yuri Effect 188
Apple Pie 195
Thoughts Like Butterflies 201
Core-Relations 207

Collide 212
Control, Revisited 220
Fables of the Deconstruction 223
Control, Foregone 232
Foundations 236
One Way 241
Sebastin's Friends 244
A Tinker by Any Other Name 251
When It Rains 262
I Am a Heartbeat 267

What I Did This Summer 273
A Permanent Position 280
For Adam 284
Faith 288
Counting by Two 291
Disconnect 298
Sahim 304
Epilogue: Beginnings 309
Acknowledgments 313
Know More 315
Privacy Policy of a Few Organizations 317
References 319