Feb 23, 2009 0
A response to ‘Daemon’
Almost a year ago I read Joi Ito’s review of Daemon, and I checked if the book was available at my local library. It was not, so I wrote them an e-mail suggesting the book. Subsequently, I wrote a little tweet, and then I left it at that. A few weeks later I received an email reply from the library that they had ordered the self-published book, but I never actually got around to reading it myself, even though the themes explored in the book are right up my alley.
Fast forward to last month, when the author of the book e-mailed me, thanked me for helping to get the word out, and asked me for my home address so he could send me a hard copy of the book, which was now being published by Dutton. I sent him an e-mail, thanked him for the offer, and wished him the best of luck with the Dutton publishing.
Then, last week I received a package from California with the book and I spent the next days reading the book, making notes and reading some of the links from the ‘Daemon’ website as well as watching things like the Google Tech Talks video from earlier this month.
I will not go into details about what the book is about – you can read reviews elsewhere – I liked Mark Frauenfelder’s response to it.
One of the aspects of the book which I found fascinating was the bits of augmented reality, and I genuinely got the chill in chapter 42 – once you read the book yourself you will understand.
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In essence, the book explores a huge “what if” regarding the security of our modern technology. What would happen once those bots (or daemons) that permeate our daily lives are used against us? What happens when we surround ourselves with technology that we do not understand and honestly don’t really know how to secure? When this technology could be used against us.
I look forward to the follow-up to Daemon, which will be published next year. Meanwhile, I am interested in whether this book will spark a wider debate regarding our technology and how we use it.