Twenty-six years after its original publication, Borsook's "smart, funny and irreverent" (The New York Times) critique of high-tech has proved a prescient assessment of a toxic ethos which has seeped into every corner of our world.
Cyberselfish saw the warning signs about a culture violently lacking in compassion, tremendously opposed to regulation, more comfortable with computers than people, and surprisingly ignorant. An ironic position, given this cohort was perhaps the single biggest recipient of the greatest government subsidy of technology and expansion in history. But it is also a culture that believes in Ayn Rand and the stockholder theory of value and acts as if privacy isn't for the Little People.
Borsook foresaw that once tech boomed to new heights of financial success, those at the helm would feel their achievement in one sphere should result in greater power and influence in others. Today, as titans of the tech world have inserted themselves even further into all aspects of society, Borsook's insights have become more universally applicable than even she could have imagined. But what will result if the people who shape public policy know nothing about history or political science or, most importantly, how to interact with other humans? Cyberselfish posits this is the true revenge of the nerds. "Cuts through the usual techie propaganda. . . . Cyberselfish is a fabulous read." -Seattle Weekly
"An entertaining, black-humored tour of Silicon Valley . . . Borsook handles cyberian foibles with wit, verve, energy, and aplomb." -TechDirections
"[Cyberselfish] serves as a welcome corrective to the gung-ho chronicles of the new economy." -Publishers Weekly
"Cyberselfish wasn't an artifact. It was a warning. Paulina wasn't just first. She was specific, documented, and surgically clear. The world caught up. But it didn't turn around. It's time." -Jonathan Sandhu, FakeSoap
"Would be even funnier if it weren't also so scary." -The Christian Science Monitor
"Asks pointed, relevant questions and offers learned observations that could be useful to those of us who've observed Silicon Valley from afar and yearned for a little illumination." -Washington Post Book World
"A sharp-witted, thoroughly competent attack on the cornpone Darwinism that drives the Internet's corporate agenda." -Toronto Globe & Mail
"With humor and grace, Ms. Borsook provides a platform for those who look at the high-tech whirl and think, 'Are those people nuts?'" -The Dallas Morning News Paulina Borsook has worked in and around Northern California tech culture since the early 1980s. Formerly on the masthead of Wired, she has written for multiple tech publications and companies and for countless non-tech publications. She is currently a contributing editor for the magazine "InFormation/every day computers are making people easier to use", which offers both silly and serious critiques of tech as written by people within it.
