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jbriaz's review against another edition
DNF at the end of chapter 4 (25% in).
0 stars. This book is a disaster.
I generally agree with the other 1 star and 2 star reviews. This book is marketed as an investigation into the tech billionaires doomsday cellars, bunkers, etc. The reader receives almost nothing about it. Instead it is an anti-capitalist cyberpunk screed using recycled Marxist arguments that are so unoriginal that Karl Marx himself made them 160 years ago. Beyond that, Rushkoff clearly did not undertake the barest amount of research, which is frustrating given that he is an academic. And he lacked any focus or coherence in the book. As said above, he didn't write about tech billionaires fallout shelters. He instead moves from random topic to random topic harping on the problems with modern society and how tech billionaires and tech companies are extracting value and subjecting the poor. He does not use hard evidence to support his points or quality research. (And I say this as someone who generally agrees with his arguments.) He would've been better served just making a YouTube video ranting about these subjects than trying to market this into a book.
0 stars. This book is a disaster.
I generally agree with the other 1 star and 2 star reviews. This book is marketed as an investigation into the tech billionaires doomsday cellars, bunkers, etc. The reader receives almost nothing about it. Instead it is an anti-capitalist cyberpunk screed using recycled Marxist arguments that are so unoriginal that Karl Marx himself made them 160 years ago. Beyond that, Rushkoff clearly did not undertake the barest amount of research, which is frustrating given that he is an academic. And he lacked any focus or coherence in the book. As said above, he didn't write about tech billionaires fallout shelters. He instead moves from random topic to random topic harping on the problems with modern society and how tech billionaires and tech companies are extracting value and subjecting the poor. He does not use hard evidence to support his points or quality research. (And I say this as someone who generally agrees with his arguments.) He would've been better served just making a YouTube video ranting about these subjects than trying to market this into a book.
mogreig's review against another edition
5.0
The plan the tech billionaires have for our future is scary. This book will convince you why we mustn't let that happen.
rebus's review against another edition
4.75
There is a great deal of amazing information here, and I wanted to rave about it as a 5 star masterpiece, but the author has questionable credentials while being lauded as one of the great geniuses of our age (the moron Malcolm Gladwell comes to mind).
The fact that he was a gamer retard and saw the 'digital renaissance' as something positive is not so much mystifying as it indicates a religious zeal, which we saw in so much art and music of that time (I'm talking to you, Jesus Jones). It was neither 'psychedelic' nor 'conscious evolution' but a psychotic and psychopathic technology that took on a life of its own that has had wholly negative repercussions for society. It was NOT about a collective flourishing so much as about personal survival via wealth accumulation. Every single person who blurbed the book is fabulously wealthy, the least trustworthy being the execrable Molly Crabapple, who refuses to acknowledge that she is a member of this elite (so too is Rushkoff). He decries TV, yet the internet now functions in much the same way: as a one way conduit for propagandist fiction, programming society to believe in the most horrific evils and to paint them as good, and the entire program was like that of the High Modernists, as narcissists, autistics, borderline cases and were at the leading edge of this pathology (John Barlow's 1996 declaration was an expression of this narcissism for these elite groups and not a new manifesto for a new age).
He also tells some blatant lies, such that women were marginalized from having tech careers, and Debra Soh would like to have a word about the biological reasons why they were never drawn to it (and gamer chicks ARE the worst of that psychopathic industry). He lauds the right of people to stay in their PJs and work from home, but this is upper middle class white privilege and the infantilization of society in action. I would also point out to him that mirroring and empathy are NOT possible in any sort of mediated interaction; it requires face to face contact. He also confuses spirituality with the evil of organized monotheistic religion--it is the font of all xenophobia, fascism and elitism in the world--and remains a true believer of technology as the way forward. He's also completely wrong about humans gaining size in the middle ages--it wasn't until the late 1800s that we began to reverse the shrinkage caused by agriculture 10,000 years ago--and seems to agree with the crypto-fascist Steven Pinker about the world being safer than ever (for whites only, as 4 billion are now slaves and 75,000 of those die daily due to US Economics).
He loves the hero's journey and the epic quest, like most gamer morons, and fails to recognize that this is a tale that is only available to elites, a metaphor for progress, and contains the chimera of constant progress. He's just like the Boomers who sold out immediately on any spiritual ideals they once espoused, opting instead for 'personal growth' via EST and Scientology and other evil programs that would allow them to exploit and get rich without guilt. He seems to simply believe we all need to 'get in the game' and invest in crypto currency or some other fraudulent fad. He even seems to believe Extinction Rebellion is effective and touts it as an alternative to the Davos crowd, thinking falsely that we can simply partner with nature and scale back.
He utterly misunderstands biology and that the COVID pandemic was a fraud, and equally supports Democrat talking points about the false ideology of Transgender (that our corrupt medical industry cashes in on both and is treating Trans at rates more than 18 times higher than it occurs).
The vast majority of the book is great, so I hate to have to point out the negatives as if this were a bad book. It's truly great for the most part, but Dougie here needs to keep his upper middle class cred and not put off his donors. Just like the Democrats.
The fact that he was a gamer retard and saw the 'digital renaissance' as something positive is not so much mystifying as it indicates a religious zeal, which we saw in so much art and music of that time (I'm talking to you, Jesus Jones). It was neither 'psychedelic' nor 'conscious evolution' but a psychotic and psychopathic technology that took on a life of its own that has had wholly negative repercussions for society. It was NOT about a collective flourishing so much as about personal survival via wealth accumulation. Every single person who blurbed the book is fabulously wealthy, the least trustworthy being the execrable Molly Crabapple, who refuses to acknowledge that she is a member of this elite (so too is Rushkoff). He decries TV, yet the internet now functions in much the same way: as a one way conduit for propagandist fiction, programming society to believe in the most horrific evils and to paint them as good, and the entire program was like that of the High Modernists, as narcissists, autistics, borderline cases and were at the leading edge of this pathology (John Barlow's 1996 declaration was an expression of this narcissism for these elite groups and not a new manifesto for a new age).
He also tells some blatant lies, such that women were marginalized from having tech careers, and Debra Soh would like to have a word about the biological reasons why they were never drawn to it (and gamer chicks ARE the worst of that psychopathic industry). He lauds the right of people to stay in their PJs and work from home, but this is upper middle class white privilege and the infantilization of society in action. I would also point out to him that mirroring and empathy are NOT possible in any sort of mediated interaction; it requires face to face contact. He also confuses spirituality with the evil of organized monotheistic religion--it is the font of all xenophobia, fascism and elitism in the world--and remains a true believer of technology as the way forward. He's also completely wrong about humans gaining size in the middle ages--it wasn't until the late 1800s that we began to reverse the shrinkage caused by agriculture 10,000 years ago--and seems to agree with the crypto-fascist Steven Pinker about the world being safer than ever (for whites only, as 4 billion are now slaves and 75,000 of those die daily due to US Economics).
He loves the hero's journey and the epic quest, like most gamer morons, and fails to recognize that this is a tale that is only available to elites, a metaphor for progress, and contains the chimera of constant progress. He's just like the Boomers who sold out immediately on any spiritual ideals they once espoused, opting instead for 'personal growth' via EST and Scientology and other evil programs that would allow them to exploit and get rich without guilt. He seems to simply believe we all need to 'get in the game' and invest in crypto currency or some other fraudulent fad. He even seems to believe Extinction Rebellion is effective and touts it as an alternative to the Davos crowd, thinking falsely that we can simply partner with nature and scale back.
He utterly misunderstands biology and that the COVID pandemic was a fraud, and equally supports Democrat talking points about the false ideology of Transgender (that our corrupt medical industry cashes in on both and is treating Trans at rates more than 18 times higher than it occurs).
The vast majority of the book is great, so I hate to have to point out the negatives as if this were a bad book. It's truly great for the most part, but Dougie here needs to keep his upper middle class cred and not put off his donors. Just like the Democrats.
mr_jajo's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0