Abstract

BARBA-KAY, Antón. A Web of Our Own Making: The Nature of Digital Formation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. x + 295 pp. Cloth, $29.99—This is a truly remarkable book, brimming with extensive research, penetrating insight, and poetic beauty. The book’s main theme is the cultural revolution caused by digital technology. As the book shows, we have always been shaped by our tools. With new ways of doing come new ways of being human. In this way, the digital revolution is continuous with previous technological revolutions. But Barba-Kay argues that digital technology also represents a new, perhaps even final, stage in the history of technology. What makes digital technology so powerful—and so dangerous—is that it is a natural technology.