The High Cost of High Tech: The Dark Side of the Chip

by Lenny Siegel, John Markoff, Lenny Siegel

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 006039045X
• ISBN13: 9780060390457
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 247 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Dark Chip Sociology 101

This book is rated as a 5 for the content and the issues it brings up, not it's readability. This is not the best book John Markoff has contributed; many of his other books are much better. The other author, a self-acclaimed tree-hugger trained in the atmosphere of 1960's and early 1970's counter-culture of the San Francisco Bay Area, appears to lead the book's agenda and discusses many of his activist ideas. The first hundred or so pages reveal the very liberal, anti-government, anti-technology and anti-military agenda. Along with the social agenda there are many warnings and cautionary notes about how technology can lead to a police state (Big Brother), infringed liberties, and world-wide holocaust due to military or political mistakes. After the agenda and warnings, the authors get down to the nuts and bolts that I expected from the book. The book discusses the pollution caused by the semiconductor and electronic industry in the Santa Clara Valley. It also discusses the decline back in the 1980s of the standard of living for many working in the valley due to road congestion, housing costs and pollution induced clusters of illness and death. The authors do not use the word exploit but it describes this by discussing the relatively low wages the assembly end of the industry in the valley and especially in the Third World countries that much of the work is exported to before the product is returned to the United States, and this is the taking advantage of minority women in general. Being one who does not generally agree with the liberal basis, this book is a must read for those trying to understand the basics of the complex nature of the semiconductor industry. The rise of the Silicon Valley and the wealth it has generated is an intriguing historical fact. The concentration of intellectual brilliance at the top end of the industry is unprecedented. This book is a good start to understanding some of the conditions within the Santa Clara valley, which continues to be interesting place to observe from a far or up close and personal. This is important for those areas that wish to imitiate the valley's business environment. The valley is supposed to have the highest concentration of brilliant folks and also reportedly the highest concentration of asperger's in the world. This is a book with important ideas which need some thought, even if you disagree with the basis for those ideas.