If you've been reading books like Yuval Noah Harari's Home Deus or similar futurology texts it seems like the future is the gradual unfolding of technological wonders. What Aaron Bastani does in this book is look at how these technological possibilities are invariably caught up in political choices. When Greta Thunberg says she isn't interested in the politics only the science, it ignores how science is framed by politics. It is in the interests of some political groups to belittle science and cause people to question how reliable it is. The way the media portrays science often has the underlying message that science is unreliable or subjective - what "science" tells us is good for us this week might change to the opposite the week after. Similarly when we hear "the economy is doing well" that has an underlying message that this is good news for everyone - but the again, political choices determine whether "doing well" in an an economy means that businesses are making profits for shareholders or that people are in well paid, useful, satisfying jobs. Aaron Bastani does a good job is showing how politics is a part of how we frame and understand the world - what is it we value, how to we believe goods should be distributed, what does a good society look like? He does a very good job of showing how the market and capitalism is antagonistic to the possibilities of future abundance. That we therefore need to change how we organise our economy because capitalism needs scarcity and if it doesn't occur naturally then it will have to be imposed artificially. He also tries to suggest how we might support a progressive politics that uses these future technologies for the benefit of everyone, not just the few. It is a book to be hopeful about the future, but also concerned that without a wider understanding among the public of what is possible that the politics of fear will stop people entering this wonderful vision of the future.
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This book gives an optimistic view (given the many potential crises of Brexit, Global warming, resource depletion, etc) of how actually given how technology has developed in the last few hundred years, how it is likely to develop so that energy, food and other essentials become so abundant that there should be plentiful supply for everyone on the planet, using Moore's Law and other established ideas to predict how technology might develop whilst costs decrease and how life might be in the future. The question is then if these essentials are abundant, how do you make sure everyone has access to them? Do you rely on capitalism/neoliberalism to hope that somehow everyone gets access, given we already have vast inequalities in the Western World, or is there another way of ensuring this? Bastani evaluates why communism has failed previously and why it might be successful in the future scenario he predicts.
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You will learn a lot from this book. And don’t ever be tempted to talk on r/Communism . Talk to real people about it.
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.... But judging how capitalism has such a grip on the moronic British public, it is nothing more than a dream.
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Packed full of ideas and vision and for once a look at the future that takes the problems we face, and gives us food for thought about possible solutions. The challenges we face mean we must find strong constructive solutions. The enormity of the challenge we've given ourselves means we have to respond. It could make you despondent but after this you should have some 'ways and means or 'food for thought'. We can meet the challenges and in the process make a better world for everyone.
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I found this an inspiring and interesting book, that brings together a lot of historical analysis with a good understanding of our contemporary political situation. The title is a bit flippant and belies the depth of thinking that has gone into Bastani's worldview. Essentially, he argues that with massive technological developments, particularly mechanisation and automation, we are entering a new age of positive possibilities and social equities. The analysis is, perhaps, naive, but very forward thinking and 'out of the box.' A voice of optimism in this relatively depressing times.
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Growing up in the Milleni generation this is a refreshing book that seeks to analyse and understand the truth of democratic socialism or progressivsm. It's great not to have to read through dozens of pages of neiliberal lies and stupidity like you find in books byout of touch centrist such as James O'Brian. Love Aaron's work on Novara Media too. New media is going yo save this country.
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The book talks about a lot of important subjects, echoing a lot points that were presented in "Postcapitalism and a World Without Work" a few years earlier. However, after a short introduction, most of the book is fawning over different technologies, followed by a very short conclusion with very few thoughts about political strategy. Certain points were quite naive, or even incorrect. Even though I enjoyed reading it, I was left quite dissapointed when finishing it.
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The book gives you an overview of the ways in which tech will change the way we live.
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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It consists of descriptions of various mind-expanding new technologies such as AI, gene editing and spaceships which can prospect, and hopefully bring back, minerals from faraway asteroids in space! To start with, let me first state that I have no background in social science or economics, and so was unable to follow the last couple of chapters, where, the author has laid out the basic thesis that such technologies should come to the benefit of ALL humankind, instead of just tech billionaires, and presumably, laid out a roadmap for that to happen. I'll have to buy some books on economics (I've already read one on sociology), and revisit that section later. Coming from a city like Kolkata, the garbage dump of the world, some of the writing made for heart-wrenching reading, with the basic question arising in my mind while reading the book being: "Can we even *dare* to dream of such a future, that the author is painting, for the likes of US?" Yes, all of us here would like a life of unheard of abundance instead of the grinding poverty we live in, is that actually going to *happen*? I have to say, despite, as I said, the author's wish that these amazing technologies (which the scientist in me loved reading about) benefit all of us, that this seems to be only a wish - there's no clear idea given how we're going to actually PREVENT people like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos from owning the booty from outer-space asteroids (the irony that I'm writing this on Amazon couldn't be more immense)! All of humanity has to come together to solve this problem. I write this, as I said, sitting in Kolkata, which, according to my (untrained) mind, has been ravaged by the LACK of capitalism and the free market, so when I came across this book, and others like it, it was a revelation for me that there actually IS a thing called the British left! I was curious to find out what their point of view might be, and I am now somewhat enlightened. Once again, the author does not say how private enterprise can be STOPPED from, as I said above, hunting for wealth up above, but these (space) technologies are progressing frenetically I assume BECAUSE of competition, ie. the free market; but Mr. Bastani makes the case that the resulting resources should be shared with all of humanity once they've found something - this sounds nonsensical (although he does give a nod to government efforts in this area). As he himself says, they're not doing all this so someone ELSE can get rich! I also found something curious - the author leaves out the word "that" where it should have been used at many points in the book - this needs to be fixed. At the end of it though, it's a heartening and thought-provoking book. It cost a FORTUNE, just under a thousand bucks, so I'm waiting for that day when all of our stuff becomes free, as Mr. Bastani has said - let's start with this book!
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Ich hätte das Buch nicht gekauft, wenn ich nicht davon ausgehen würde, dass der technologische Fortschritt Arbeit überflüssig machen wird. Mehr als die Hälfte des Buches ist aber nur dieser Zukunftsbeschreibung gewidmet - es werden offene Türen eingerannt…
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Important vision of what could be. Power to the people. Labour for the robots 🤖
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I am an avid reader of the online media we call news in this country (USA). I independently formed a similar conclusion just from the perspective I've developed from consuming a load of information. For me, the novelty of this book was to show how predictions from economic contributors were in agreement if you look at the future described by the author in the perspective of modern technology. One takeaway for me was I found a way to disagree with author Chris Hedges, a man who agrees with Marxist criticism of capital but disagrees with the communist outcome as predicted by Karl Marx. I think Mr. Bastani did a great job of codifying and narrating the capitalist progression, calling it capitalist realism, and worded it all in a way that is hard to reject. If you're not an avid reader of news, this book will arm you with the insight to make some predictions, and if you are an avid reader of news like I am but are short on relevant selections of the history of economic thought, this book will fill in the gaps and give you the benefit of seeing how Keynes and Marx, for instance, agreed with one another, a comparison I've never seen myself from any other author. In short, speaking with an educational background of an advanced degree in computer science, I find it easy to go from the premises he presents (which are true) to the conclusion he presents, so I believe he builds a strong argument for the future of society. I thank Mr. Bastani for reminding me that communism, as presented by Karl Marx, didn't necessarily rely on human labor to produce the shared material wealth. Instead, Karl Marx's prediction relied on the assumption that the means of production will become very efficient, and Mr. Basatani identified the nascent technology for this as artificial intelligence. I recommend you purchase this book and I hope you enjoy reading it just as I did.
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