Silicon snake oil
by Clifford Stoll · first published 1995
32% recommend44% neutral24% critical
Why HN recommends it
Skeptical 1995 polemic on the internet hype, computers in classrooms, and what networks fail to deliver. Readers value it as a tempering counterweight, partly prescient and partly wrong, with humor.
Common criticism: Some say he badly misjudged how the internet would develop
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Perhaps our networked world isn't a universal doorway to freedom. Might it be a distraction from reality? An ostrich hole to divert our attention and resources from social problems? A misuse of technology that encourages passive rather than active participation? I'm starting to ask questions like this, and I'm not the first. - Preface.
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I honestly don't understand how a back-room deal that results in a sale like this going to help. Clifford Stoll's Silicon Snake Oil, though it sounds a bit luddite is worth a read. There are problems that deserve far more attention like basic hygiene and access to primary education.
on “India buys 250k OLPCs” ↗…dropped acid and decided it’d be a great idea to connect every person on the planet to every other person on the plant. Oh wait... Kidding aside, this brings back memories of Clifford Stoll’s book, “Silicon Snake Oil.” I’d love to read it again. I know, he’s been panned for making really wrong predictions (“no one’s gonna use a credit card over the internet”), but I’d love to read it again standing on the other side…
on “The rise of the internet and a new age of authoritarianism” ↗His follow-up book "Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway" was also a great read [0]. It's a shame that collectively we couldn't heed some of his warnings about the hype we were being sold about the Internet. In many…
on “Cliff Stoll, the mad scientist who invented the art of hunting hackers” ↗Clifford Stoll was right. Read Silicon Snake Oil and marvel at his prescience.
on “Computers 'do not improve' pupil results, says OECD” ↗…networks? (it's not who you think!) Do computers and networks really belong in the classroom? Why does the network promise so much, yet deliver so little? Source: http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~stoll/silicon_snake_oil.html
on “This talk puts the eccentric absent-minded professor stereotype to rest once and for all.” ↗Another vote for Silicon Snake Oil. Stoll makes the point that computers are great except for between the ages of 6 and 16, when they can't replace experiences such as actually going on a field trip.
on “India buys 250k OLPCs” ↗…(and too much time in front of the computer, though that's not really being lazy!) since the start of time. Relevant to this discussion is Silicon Valley Snake Oil by Cliff Stoll. http://www.amazon.com/Silicon-Snake-Oil-Thoughts-Information... In 1996 he predates a lot of these ideas by 15 years. And he's gone from physicist-hacker to Klein Bottle (Mobius bottle?) Maker. http://www.kleinbottle.com/
on “The lost world of physicality” ↗One of the most memorable passages from Cliff Stoll’s “Silicon Snake Oil” was about the reliability of snail mail. How you could scribble a person’s name on a postcard, mess up a lot of details, and it still manages to get to them.
on “The Billionaire Behind Efforts to Kill the U.S. Postal Service [pdf]” ↗…was taking hard ideas and making them simple. My first real introduction to the idea of writing with simple, clear sentences came from Cliff Stoll. People thought the Cuckoo’s Egg was ghostwritten. In Silicon Snake Oil he shared thoughts on what made his writing so enjoyable. What I remember most is simplicity. And short sentences. 1: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1862302.Art_of_Plain_Tal...
on “The Armed Forces Officer Chapter Twenty: Writing and Speaking (1950)” ↗Recommend revisiting Mr. Stoll's book - 'Silicon snake oil' (1995). It shows how much people who are inside the revolution can't see that it's the revolution. I think he got it wrong with everything the internet would become. Mr. Stoll wrote something along…
on “Why the Web Won't Be Nirvana (Cliff Stoll, 1995)” ↗…grateful both to have grown up during the birth of the web, and to have read Stoll's books as a kid. I was introduced to his work through The Cuckoo's Egg, which had me absolutely riveted. And then read "Silicon Snake Oil". Regardless of which aspects of Stoll's predictions came true, I really appreciate his perspective. So many of the things he said in Snake Oil stick with me to this day. Like, despite all this technology…
on “The web won't be nirvana (1995)” ↗He wrote a great book "Silicon Snake Oil" that is full of things just like this he was so very wrong about, it's a great read still. He complains about how bad things were in the late 90s, but somehow misses how things will get better. It's…
on “The dream of driverless cars is dying” ↗The Cuckoo's Egg and Silicon Snake Oil were life changing for me. I was in middle school, snowed-in in upstate New York, on my computer most of the time. And the writing tips at the end of Silicon Snake Oil have stuck with me to this day.…
on “Cliff Stoll, the mad scientist who invented the art of hunting hackers” ↗I remember that humor from Silicon Snake Oil, it was a wonderful book. I think back to it when working in an industry where everyone takes a tractable problem and makes it intractable for "job security".
on “How a Berkeley Eccentric Beat the Russians – Then Made Useless, Wondrous Objects” ↗…automatically. (Sorry, couldn't resist) Also - thank-you for your books, I read "The Cuckoo's Egg" when I was 18 and it was one of the most amazing things I had read to that point. (I also loved "Silicon Snake Oil" - but missed "High-Tech Herectic")
on “How a Berkeley Eccentric Beat the Russians – Then Made Useless, Wondrous Objects” ↗