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mburnamfink's review against another edition
4.0
Working Futures is serious speculative fiction, the product of a deliberate foresight exercise to imagine the future of work. And thanks to generous support from The Charles Koch Foundation and The Hewlett Foundation, you can grab a copy for $3, which is a deal. As with all collections of this nature, the quality varies, in this case from solid to great. It's a stronger collection overall than Microsoft's 2015 Future Visions, though Microsoft had a lot more name brand talent.
Standout stories are "The Chaperone" by Andrew Dana Hudson, which imagines a customer service rep handling people who get too close to their AI assistants. The details of her life as a climate refugee outside Atlanta, and the ominous power of the tech giant Alpha against the empowered radical socialist bureaucrats of a newly empowered regulatory state have a realistic density reminiscent of Bruce Sterling at his best. "Generation Gap" by Holly Schofield tries to bridge the incommensurate gaps between a dying man of our generation, and the cryptic hustling entrepreneur who has hired him to contextualize early 21st century ephemera that hasn't been digitized.
The rest of the stories float through a world of algorithmic injustice, subcontracting out new forms of emotional labor, and bourgeoisie lifestyles without bourgeoisie stability, without ever really achieving a sharp point. They're not bad, per se, but in this critical futurist's eye, they lack the boldness of authenticity. Still better than the median story in Clarkesworld these days.
Standout stories are "The Chaperone" by Andrew Dana Hudson, which imagines a customer service rep handling people who get too close to their AI assistants. The details of her life as a climate refugee outside Atlanta, and the ominous power of the tech giant Alpha against the empowered radical socialist bureaucrats of a newly empowered regulatory state have a realistic density reminiscent of Bruce Sterling at his best. "Generation Gap" by Holly Schofield tries to bridge the incommensurate gaps between a dying man of our generation, and the cryptic hustling entrepreneur who has hired him to contextualize early 21st century ephemera that hasn't been digitized.
The rest of the stories float through a world of algorithmic injustice, subcontracting out new forms of emotional labor, and bourgeoisie lifestyles without bourgeoisie stability, without ever really achieving a sharp point. They're not bad, per se, but in this critical futurist's eye, they lack the boldness of authenticity. Still better than the median story in Clarkesworld these days.
federico's review
5.0
What an amazing book. The stories fell either into either visionary in a good way or in a bad way. Particulary "The Nole Edge Economy" resonated with with what I want from tech and the future
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