Is the Net is good or bad for us? That's beside the point: it’s here; it’s everywhere. In "Program or Be Programmed," Rushkoff tells readers the real question is, do we direct technology, or do we let ourselves be directed by it and those who have mastered it? “Choose the former,” writes Rushkoff, “and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter, and it could be the last real choice you get to make.”

Programming is the new literacy of the digital age––and a template through which to see beyond social conventions and power structures that have vexed us for centuries.