The lives of Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, and Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin leap from the pages of World Without Mind, as Foer conjures concise, insightful psychological profiles of each mover-and-shaker, detailing how they've mixed utopianism and monopolism into an insidious whole ... even at his most persuasive, Foer doesn't pay enough attention to how activism might counter what he calls the tech industry's aspiration 'to mold humanity into their desired image of it' ... A threshold is about to be crossed, he says, if it hasn't already — and beyond that, it will become nearly impossible for us to extricate ourselves from a life where social media and centralized information have eradicated privacy, individuality, and free will. Naturally, George Orwell enters the conversation. But even at his most sensational, Foer modulates his hyperbole into the kind of lucid, absorbing exposition he fought to preserve while at The New Republic ... Foer has not presented a coolly considered and calmly debated case of persuasion; rather, World Without Mind is a searing take, a polemic packed with urgency and desperation that, for all its erudition and eloquence, is not afraid to roll up its sleeves and make things personal.

[Foer] has crafted an anti-Silicon Valley manifesto that while occasionally slipping into alarmism and get-off-my-lawn-ism makes a cogently scary case against the influence of U.S. tech firms (but not, crucially, technology itself). Silicon Valley, he argues, may say it wants to improve the world. But its true endgame is the advancement of an ideological agenda.? And it's a terrifying one ... Foer also has a knack for finding the aptly revealing quote from a Silicon Valley executive; this is a book interested in petard-hoisting. World Without Mind becomes a little too preoccupied with journalism and creativity, particularly in its latter sections. The effect of certain technology on media can be profound and frightening. But it is hardly the sum of the changes the digital world has wrought ... Some may also find his unifying theories? a little too grand...But he mostly and persistently, with the zealotry of the companies he derides, builds a strong philosophical case.

...[a] thought-provoking and cogent book ... World Without Mind argues that we must actively fashion the internet we want instead of accepting, by default, what markets give us...It would take quite a shift to bring about the changes Foer advocates. He thinks it’s most likely to occur only after enormous and damaging hacks, the kind that disclose enough private information to wreck lives, or disrupt systems in ways that cause death and destruction. In an environment where we are being governed by the Tweet, but can at least vent our outrage on, well, Twitter…I fear even this sad prediction may be overly optimistic.

For much of the book, readers are parachuted into various moments in the history of computing, the internet, media and philosophy. Character introductions arrive rapidly, with a casualness that can slip into absurdity...The effect is slightly delirious but genuinely enjoyable. Readers are flung through a highly selective history of the philosophy of mind, landing squarely on their feet in Google’s A.I. laboratories ... His obvious loathing of the social-media-driven news coverage pursued in recent years by most media organizations does capture the fatalistic mood of the industry, but betrays a sense of nostalgia for a better era that can be hard to locate anywhere outside of Foer’s own memory. He also reveals a lack of interest in new modes of media production that were rising as his magazine fell ... Though he makes no radical or provocative case to, say, nationalize Facebook, or to break up Google, he does suggest creating a Data Protection Authority, in the mold of Elizabeth Warren’s post-financial-crisis Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and calling for government to protect privacy as it (in theory) protects the environment. Is this idealistic, plain crazy, or just impotent? The armchair technology critic — roused by Foer’s sneakily persuasive manifesto — might ask in response, with a mixture of satisfaction and despair: What does it mean that it could be all three?

In his new book World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech, Franklin Foer argues that this shift from individual to collective thinking is nowhere more evident than in the way we create and consume media on the Internet ... Foer, of course, is writing about this topic from a position of relative privilege. He rose in his field before journalists relied on Twitter to promote their work ... Perhaps aware even as he was writing that he was not in the position to launch an unbiased critique, Foer chooses to aim his polemic at the people who run large online platforms and not at the platforms themselves ... Foer doesn’t want Facebook to stop existing, but he does want greater government regulation and better antitrust legislation ... Foer also has a higher opinion of human willpower in the face of massively well-funded efforts to dismantle, divert, and repurpose it than I do.

Readers who loved Dave Eggers’ dystopian novel, The Circle, will recognize similarities in what Foer explores here. The difference is that Foer is warning America that the growing nightmare is real, and that it’s happening in ways few are cognizant of. This is a splash of ice-cold water, a fierce call to action, and a great read.

As Franklin Foer writes in World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech, journalists often mistake their own concerns for those of the world at large...the rise of Big Tech, the fall of the fourth estate, and the effect of it all on democracy is a story that is not only pressing to hacks but to the world at large ...as World Without Mind shows, Big Tech and its disciples aren’t hippies — they are rapacious capitalists with a disturbing libertarian streak ...found myself unconvinced by Foer’s argument that creativity itself has been crushed by Big Tech... Still, he hits the point about the largest tech businesses being attention-merchants rather than innovators squarely on the head.

His new book World Without Mind decries society’s capture by big technology companies, mainly Amazon, Facebook and Google. His criticisms are wide-ranging, but centre on the idea that they have become monopolies ... The book flits between history, philosophy and politics, but it is also a first-hand tale ...World Without Mind joins books such as Move Fast and Break Things by Jonathan Taplin, published earlier this year, and Tim Wu’s excellent The Master Switch, from 2010, in arguing that regulators need to look at these world-changing companies more critically. Butreaders looking for an enduring, well-researched manifesto about big tech’s dangers will be disappointed by the book’s lazy generalisations. Mr Foer is not a business journalist or economist, and he cares little for financial and legal details ... Examining tech firms is more urgent than ever. Mr Foer is right to be sceptical, but his is not the final word.

A capably argued if perhaps too familiar criticism of things as they are in this intermediated, technological swirl of a world ... Foer aims broadly and fires buckshot. Sometimes he hits the target, sometimes not. When he does, it’s a doozy ... A spirited renunciation of the machine and not just for Luddites in favor of such radical thoughts as private ownership of one’s own data and the nonalgorithmic shopping experience.

...a fascinating, far-reaching discussion of the monopolistic behavior and intentions of Amazon, Facebook, and Google; the misdirected trend of favoring collaboration over individualism; and the growing dangers of algorithms ... Foer is neither subtle nor impartial, and this is more a call to arms than a wake-up call. It’s a rousing—though oversimplified—spin on the Silicon Valley origin story and the cultural impact of technology.