I had to read this book for a computer ethics course at college, if I am being honest it was not the worst book. It was actually quite interesting in its subject matter. The book discusses a lot of the ethical questions that is surrounding the current age of technology, and its proposing opposing viewpoints in an articulated manner that felt very civil. It was nice, a rather gentle pace that allowed the reader of whatever background to feel involved with the ethical dilemmas the technology world is facing. I rather enjoyed reading it for class, even though the reading was mandatory it still felt like a book I would pick up and read for fun sometime. The only real complaint I had was about how much the author over emphasized this amazing technology of Virtual Reality. It was quite funny at first because VR was such a new thing when the book was written, the book is instantly dated when you take into context modern technologies. It is quite funny really. The idea of the META verse didn’t really exist when this book came out, now it seems like more and more companies are trying to solve the ethical questions VR and other technologies mentioned within the confines of the book; or they have already solved them. Not only did I enjoy its content but I also enjoyed chuckling while reading it because some of the things mentioned either were solved, got worse, or failed to launch. I feel like the author over-includes VR as the main highlighted point for it, they do go other many other topics through the book, but the only topic that really left an impression was VR. This might be by design, I have no way of knowing the inner machinations of the authors mind. Whatever the case may be, it saddens me because it means the emphasis of VR in the book is either a super highlighted topic or its a stain the degrades the other cool topics within the confines of its pages. I still would recommend it to anyone who wishes to read about ethics and their interactions with the technology world, however I would also recommend an edited version wherein you skip pages or entire chapters. As I feel the book beats the horse of VR to death way to much. It is a well written book, I have mixed feelings about it and am conflicted on many things with it. It like the majority of its content, its structure, and its feel. I am in love with the idea of it, it felt like it was going to be something else at the beginning. Because in the beginning VR is mentioned a little bit here and there until eventually it dominates the pages. Overall, I have too many mixed feelings about this book. Is it a masterpiece? Not really, but is it a bad book? No, certainly not a bad book. The sum of all my feelings can only be described as a middle number, a 3. 3/5, not an indifferent 3 though. A 3 that is more “meh”, an averaged emotional 3 instead of a “no comment” 3.

3/5

-Ben