The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit, Twentieth Anniversary Edition

387 Pages·2005·2.48 MB·English

by  Sherry Turkle

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;k In The Second Self, Sherry Turkle looks at the computer not as a “tool,” but as part of our social and
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how the computer affects our awareness of ourselves, of one another, and of our relationship
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-26 with the world. “Technology,” she writes, “catalyzes changes not only in what we do but in how we e
2-70 think.” First published in 1984, The Second Selfis still essential reading as a primer in the psychology l
111-1 of computation. This twentieth anniversary edition allows us to reconsider two decades of computer f
culture—to (re)experience what was and is most novel in our new media culture and to view our
own contemporary relationship with technology with fresh eyes. Turkle frames this classic work Sherry Turkle
with a new introduction, a new epilogue, and extensive notes added to the original text.
Turkle talks to children, college students, engineers, AIscientists, hackers, and personal com-
puterowners—people confronting machines that seem to think and at the same time suggest a
new way for us to think—about human thought, emotion, memory, and understanding. Her inter- “A brilliant and challenging
views reveal that we experience computers as being on the border between inanimate and animate, T
discussion presented with
as both an extension of the self and part of the external world. Their special place betwixt and u
between traditional categories is part of what makes them compelling and evocative. In the intro- r extraordinary clarity.”
duction to this edition, Turkle quotes a PDAuser as saying, “When my Palm crashed, it was like a k 8
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death. I thought I had lost my mind.” Why we think of the workings of a machine in psychological e —Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, 0
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terms—howthis happens, and what it means for all of us—is the ever more timely subject of The 4
New York Times 6
Second Self.

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Sherry Turkle is Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor ofthe Social Studies of Science and Technology 3
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at MITand Founder and Director of the MITInitiative on Technology and Self. Twentieth Anniversary Edition /0
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“Anyone who wishes to know about the effects of computers on American society today would do
well to read The Second Self.”—Howard Gardner, New York Times Book Review
“Turkle has created an excursion into thought. . . . Sociologists, psychologists, and philosophers can
benefit from examination of the principles put forth by Turkle.”—Byte
“Aremarkably readable book that should appeal to anyone with the faintest interest in contemporary
society and where it’s headed.”—Newsday
The MIT Press (cid:1) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (cid:1) Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142 (cid:1) http://mitpress.mit.edu
The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit

The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit
Twentieth Anniversary Edition
Sherry Turkle
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
First edition published by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, 1984, © 1984 Sherry
Turkle
First MIT Press edition © 2005 Sherry Turkle
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any elec-
tronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information
storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales
promotional use. For information, please e-mail <[email protected]>
or write to Special Sales Department, The MIT Press, 55 Hayward Street,
Cambridge, MA 02142.
This book was set in Stone Serif and Stone Sans by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong
Kong. Printed and bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Turkle, Sherry.
The second self : computers and the human spirit / Sherry Turkle.—20th
anniversary ed.
p. c.m
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-262-70111-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Computers. 2. Electronic data processing—Psychological aspects. I. Title.
QA76.T85 2005
004—dc22
2004064980
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Robert Bonowitz and Mildred Bonowitz

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction to the MIT Press Edition (2004) 1
Introduction (1984): The Evocative Object 17
Part I
Growing Up with Computers: The Animation of the Machine
1 Child Philosophers: Are Smart Machines Alive? 33
2 Video Games and Computer Holding Power 65
3 Child Programmers: The First Generation 91
4 Adolescence and Identity: Finding Yourself in the Machine 131
Part II
The New Computer Cultures: The Mechanization of the Mind
5 Personal Computers with Personal Meanings 155
6 Hackers: Loving the Machine for Itself 183
7 The New Philosophers of Artificial Intelligence:
A Culture with Global Aspirations 219
Part III
Into a New Age
8 Thinking of Yourself as a Machine 247
9 The Human Spirit in a Computer Culture 279
Epilogue (2004): Changing the Subject and Finding the Object 287
Appendixes
A On Method: A Sociology of Sciences of Mind 303
B Children’s Psychological Discourse: Methods and Data Summary 313
Notes 323
Index 359
Acknowledgments
2004
I thank Kelly Gray for being a close and dedicated reader, who along with Jen
Audley, Robert Briscoe, Deborah Cantor-Adams, Anita Chan, Michele Crews,
Olivia Dasté, and Rachel Prentice, offered helpful opinions about the direction to
take in preparing this new edition.
And I am grateful to my daughter, Rebecca Ellen Turkle Willard, who has
inspired, delighted, and given me permission to quote her.
1984
I have worked on this book for six years and I have accumulated many
debts. My first, of course, is to my informants who generously allowed me
to share in their lives. My second debt is not to individuals but to an insti-
tution. This is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
It was at MIT that I first met up with the computer culture and it
was at MIT that I found help and support to pursue my understanding
of it.
Two people gave me early encouragement that helped to get my project
underway: Harold J. Hanham, the Dean of the School of Humanities and
Social Sciences, and Michael Dertouzos, Director of the Laboratory for
Computer Science. In the Laboratory for Computer Science, Hal Abelson,
J. C. R. Licklider, Robert Fano, Warren J. Seering, and Joseph Weizenbaum
were early guides to important issues, as were Patrick Winston, Marvin
Minsky, Seymour Papert, and Gerald Sussman in the Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory, and Benson Snyder in the Division for Study and Research in
Education. I owe a special debt to Professors Abelson, Fano, Seering, and
Sussman of MIT as well as to Professor William H. Bossert of Harvard for