The harmful side of even relatively benign technology can be plain to see, but is hardly ever discussed. Dmitry Orlov's new book, Shrinking the Technosphere: Getting a Grip on Technologies that Limit our Autonomy, Self-Sufficiency and Freedom, is critical of many aspects of technology, but it intends to evaluate each aspect of technlogoy based on a harm/benefit tradeoff, showing that the best technologies are nature-like and are not harmful at all.

Dmitry Orlov was born in Leningrad, USSR, into an academic family, and emigrated to the US in the mid-1970s. He holds degrees in Computer Engineering and Linguistics, and has worked in a variety of fields, including high-energy physics, Internet commerce, network security and advertising. He is the best-selling author of several previous books, including Reinventing Collapse and The Five Stages of Collapse.