Tech Book Club Berlin

Book Launch

We'll be reading and discussing some of the greatest, most provocative and most overrated books that try to explore the curious relationship between technology, society, and the individual.

Who is this book club for? Hackers, Internet policy people, security experts, entrepreneurs, philosophers, artists, journalists, cyborgs, technological determinists, techno-enthusiasts and pessimist… you get the point. Anyone with an interest in technology and the desire to discuss it.

What are we going to read? We've started off with two popular books, Clive Thompson's optimistic "Smarter Than you Think" and Morozov's rather critical "To Save Everything Click Here", but please feel free to propose a book you'd like to discuss! We were thinking fiction books like Orwell’s “1984”, the Philosophy of Technology (think Heidegger’s essay “On The Question Concerning Technology”), or classical essays like the cyborg manifesto.

Why is this book club in ENGLISH? One thing I noticed while studying the Internet in the UK is how shockingly different the very same technology challenges are discussed in Germany, as compared to the US. I think there is a genuine need to bridge debates and discuss different assumptions and we can only do this in English. For that purpose, we will read German books from time to time, but have a discussion in English.

The main purpose of this book club is to bring together people with an interest in technology and the desire to discuss it.

1. If you haven't managed to read the entire book - no problem. Simply focus on one chapter that caught your attention, think of one good question you'd like to discuss and post it in the group.

2. If you've read the book already - even better. Bring along some good book reviews or read another book / article by the same author and post one question in the group.

3. Everybody else. Think of a good question you'd like to discuss and post it in the group. 

Before each meetup I'll try to put your questions in some logical order. We'll spend about 90 minutes on the book until we open the floor for freestyle techno-philosophising and general hanging out.

Datum: 
07.01.2015 - 19:30 bis 21:00