Book Summary and Reviews of We Have the Technology by Kara Platoni

We Have the Technology by Kara Platoni

We Have the Technology

How Biohackers, Foodies, Physicians, and Scientists Are Transforming Human Perception, One Sense at a Time

by Kara Platoni

  • Critics' Consensus (1):
  • Published:
  • Dec 2015, 304 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

How do we know what's real? That's not a trick question: sensory science is increasingly finding that we don't perceive reality: we create it through perception. In We Have the Technology, science writer Kara Platoni guides us through the latest developments in the science of sensory perception.

We Have the Technology introduces us to researchers who are changing the way we experience the world, whether creating scents that stimulate the memories of Alzheimer's patients, constructing virtual limbs that approximate a sense of touch, or building augmented reality labs that prepare soldiers for the battlefield. These diverse investigations not only explain previously elusive aspects of human experience, but offer tantalizing glimpses into a future when we can expand, control, and enhance our senses as never before.

A fascinating tour of human capability and scientific ingenuity, We Have the Technology offers essential insights into the nature and possibilities of human experience.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. [An] enthusiastic review of research into human senses and ways they might be improved... [W]holly engrossing... This is a superb account of human perception and the first, clunky but potentially breathtaking efforts to expand it." - Publishers Weekly

"Consistently fascinating, witty, and candid… Engrossing techno-science delivered with gusto and sure to reach a varied audience." - Kirkus

"Deeply reported and deftly told, We Have the Technology draws back the curtain on a brave new world in which being a hacker means hacking oneself." - Joshua Davis, author of Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American Dream

"From a clear-eyed analysis of the meaning of time to an agreement with a master chef that Doritos are one of mankind's peak culinary achievements, this book will make you laugh, it will make you think, and it will give you so many things to talk about at parties. Paragraph after lovely paragraph, it will explode your brain." - Eric Simons, author of The Secret Lives of Sports Fans

"With We Have the Technology Kara Platoni becomes one of our best practitioners of metaperception - she thinks and feels deeply considered ideas about how we perceive the universe around us, now and in the future. If I ever have to buy robot eyes or a seventh-sense upgrade, I'm calling Kara first." - Adam Rogers, Articles Editor at Wired and author of Proof: The Science of Booze

This information about We Have the Technology was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Click here and be the first to review this book!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Information

Award-winning journalist Kara Platoni has a master's degree from UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. She lives in Oakland, California.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked We Have the Technology, try these:

  • Alien Earths jacket

    Alien Earths

    by Lisa Kaltenegger

    Published 2025

    About this book

    Riveting and timely, a look at the research that is transforming our understanding of the cosmos in the quest to discover whether we are alone.

  • Toward Eternity jacket

    Toward Eternity

    by Anton Hur

    Published 2025

    About this book

    Negotiating the terrain of Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun and Emily St. John Mandel's Sea of Tranquility, a brilliant, haunting speculative novel from a #1 New York Times bestselling translator that sets out to answer the question: What does it mean to be human in a world where technology is quickly catching up to biology?

  • Sentient jacket

    Sentient

    by Jackie Higgins

    Published 2022

    About this book

    Perfect for fans of The Soul of an Octopus and The Genius of Birds, this remarkable book explores how we process the world around us by analyzing the incredible sensory capabilities of thirteen animals and reveals that we are not limited to merely five senses.

We have 10 read-alikes for We Have the Technology, but non-members are limited to three results. Join free to see the complete list of recommendations.
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes

More Science, Health and the Environment

Browse all Science, Health and the Environment books

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
When No One Else Will
by Amanda Skenandore
1940s Chicago nurse risks everything at an illegal women’s clinic during a high-profile trial of courage and sisterhood.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket
    Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young
    by Zayd Ayers Dohrn
    Son of Weather Underground radicals recounts life on the run and decades of revolutionary struggle.
  • Book Jacket
    The Jellyfish Problem
    by Tessa Yang
    A marine biologist rescues a Maine island menaced by a giant glowing jellyfish in this inventive debut.
  • Book Jacket
    Look What You Made Me Do
    by John Lanchester
    A propulsive tale of intergenerational tension and revenge from the Booker Prize nominee.
Who Said...

Being slightly paranoid is like being slightly pregnant – it tends to get worse.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Book
Trivia
  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

Q S, S

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.