Turn off and tune out

All good non-fiction writing shares certain characteristics: consistent economy, upbeat pace and digestible ideas that logically flow. Tech writers have an additional challenge, however, of combining all this with boring technical detail. How to explain the mechanical stuff without being either too dry or too simple? What’s the reader’s likely level of knowledge?

These questions can eat an author up. I imagine science writers have the same difficulty, but this problem weighs especially on tech writers, because the composition of a piece of software, an encryption standard, or a machine-learning algorithm has a direct bearing on how it works and therefore how it affects the world. You can’t really understand the social or economic impact of bitcoin, for example, without understanding — to a reasonable degree — how the thing works. It is essential, therefore, that books about technology make sense to the non-specialist without scrimping on detail. (If you don’t think this is a problem, go online now and google the word ‘blockchain’.) Two new books on tech both illustrate, in completely different ways, how to get it right — and wrong.

James Bridle’s New Dark Age argues that we have more facts, data and ideas than ever, and yet seem to understand less and less about the world around us. This is because we have, collectively and mistakenly, bought into the idea that all problems can be solved with more data and more computation. The argument is sound, and it’s a tidy theme to tie together an impressively wide range of subjects (including climate change, drones, surveillance, pharmacology and conspiracy theories). There are plenty of moments of powerful insight and useful provocation throughout. His section on the ‘replication’ problem in scientific studies is excellent. The description and analysis of the bizarre world of children’s YouTube video recommendations is harrowing and fascinating.