In The Glass Cage, best-selling author Nicholas Carr digs behind the headlines about factory robots and self-driving cars, wearable computers and digitized medicine, as he explores the hidden costs of granting software dominion over our work and our leisure and reveals something we already suspect: shifting our attention to computer screens can leave us disengaged and discontented.

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.