Despite my disappointment with Douglas Rushkoff’s Life, Inc., and a wariness of books taglined with listicle bait (TEN COMMANDS FOR A DIGITAL AGE), I’m somewhat intrigued by Rushkoff’s new book, Program or be Programmed.
In this spirited, accessible poetics of new media, Rushkoff picks up where Marshall McLuhan left off, helping readers come to recognize programming as the new literacy of the digital age––and as a template through which to see beyond social conventions and power structures that have vexed us for centuries. This is a friendly little book with a big and actionable message.
I’m generally aligned with the sentiments expressed in his recent blog posts, wary of corporatism and mass culture, and interested to see Rushkoff’s prescription. Presumably he’ll spend less time building the argument and more on actionable measures.
I’m also interested to see how his experiment with indie publishing works out.