Alert for operators -- Passengers -- The robot at the gate -- On autopilot -- The degeneration effect -- Interlude, with dancing mice -- White-collar computer -- World and screen -- Automation for the people -- Interlude, with grave robber -- Your inner drone -- The love that lays the swale in rows.

In The Glass Cage, Pulitzer Prize nominee and bestselling author Nicholas Carr shows how the most important decisions of our lives are now being made by machines and the radical effect this is having on our ability to learn and solve problems. In May 2009 an Airbus A330 passenger jet equipped with the latest âe~glass cockpitâe(tm) controls plummeted 30,000 feet into the Atlantic. The reason for the crash: the autopilot had routinely switched itself off. In fact, automation is everywhere âe" from the thermostat in our homes and the GPS in our phones to the algorithms of High Frequency Trading and self-driving cars. We now use it to diagnose patients, educate children, evaluate criminal evidence and fight wars. But psychological studies show that we perform best when fully involved in a task, while the principle of automation âe" that humans are inefficient âe" is self-fulfilling. The glass cockpit is becoming a glass cage. In this utterly engrossing exposé, bestselling writer Nicholas Carr reveals how automation is affecting our ability to solve problems, forge memories and acquire skills. Rather than rejecting technology, Carr argues that we must urgently rethink its role in our lives, using it to enhance rather than diminish the extraordinary abilities that make us human.