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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
Strong analysis of technological end of scarcity, but less strong on how to have political or economic change
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This is an excellent introduction to 21st century socialist thinking for two main reasons: it is accessible and it offers a fresh critique. First, this book ('FALC') isn't long-winded and doesn't require any background in Marxism or economics for the reader to jump in. To me, this felt freeing and helped the text fly by at a good pace, but it also makes FALC suitable as a first book to anyone interested in post- or anti-capitalist thinking that isn't from the 20th century or earlier. Second, FALC argues that ending scarcity by social reorganization and technological innovation is possible, and it thereby avoids the technophobia that sometimes creeps into leftist critiques of capitalism that focus on the distributional unfairness of implementing new technologies, especially in the labour market. Achieving 'extreme supply' is also just plain interesting to think about, and Bastani's examples are convincing examples of how ordinary capitalist dynamics can't handle this mindset well, even when it has already been achieved (e.g., in the digital music and book markets). The only negative I can think of is the book dragged a bit in the middle of the second half, since Bastani uses a lot of examples, some of which (e.g., asteroid mining) seem more useful as thought experiments than actual contingencies socialists should think about. Nevertheless, overall I would recommend this book to anyone in my life who was socialism-curious.
I tried my very best to stay on board with this attempt to resuscitate a joke term by plugging it into a compulsively optimistic ‘manifesto’ on how the Third Disruption of digital technology could actually herald a new age of full communism. But the book is gratingly repetitive – even down to the fact that nearly every Big Point is made (with considerable fanfare) at least twice – and the breathless hyperbole becomes exhausting after the first hundred or so pages. This could have worked at maybe half the length, but I was saddened to find the end result more exasperating than inspiring.
There was a lot here I disagreed with. The move to this kind of society should be led by the resource-rich global south, not pulling "underdeveloped" countries behind to be exploited for their minerals in the transition. The chapter on renewable energy is totally unrealistic and he doesn't mention nuclear as a transitional energy source, which is needed in some regions as long as energy storage lags behind energy capture technology. The argument for post-scarcity of rare Earth resources hinges on asteroid mining, but there's no move right now towards sustainable space travel, so it's incompatible with post-scarcity of energy for the foreseeable future. The policy proposals alternate between overly specific and overly vague.
However, I still recommend the book. Optimism about the future, true optimism that moves beyond our broken system to propose what could be better, is rare and refreshing. If you don't have a vision for what could be a better future, you may as well adopt this one. It's better than nihilism, though harder.
However, I still recommend the book. Optimism about the future, true optimism that moves beyond our broken system to propose what could be better, is rare and refreshing. If you don't have a vision for what could be a better future, you may as well adopt this one. It's better than nihilism, though harder.
A call to arms there is a world to win and a world that sounds a lot like Iain Banks post scarcity culture.
This is a surprisingly easy read and chock full of good ideas and a fair amount of idealism. Many if the ideas here I can see already starting to become on the edges of mainstream political discourse.
Many are not of course!
Well worth a read if you are inclined to think another world is possible
This is a surprisingly easy read and chock full of good ideas and a fair amount of idealism. Many if the ideas here I can see already starting to become on the edges of mainstream political discourse.
Many are not of course!
Well worth a read if you are inclined to think another world is possible
This one was a real slog. Interesting concept, but rather dull. The best part was talking about extracting trillions of dollars worth of rare earth metals from mining asteroids to eliminate resource scarcity. That was neat. The rest was dull.
"Fully Automated Luxury Communism" is an oddly uplifting book for one that's premised on describing and rectifying the unsustainable nature of capitalism in the 21st century. The thesis of the book is that there's a clear mismatch between our economic-political system (i.e., capitalism) and the current reality of scientific innovations (what Bastani refers to as the "Third Disruption," the first two being the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions, respectively). Capitalist societies operate under the assumption of scarcity, which determines "value," and made sense following the Industrial Revolution. Currently, however, the artificial creation of scarcity is required to keep the gears of market capitalism operating even though there are clear possibilities of moving past this (along with the cyclical collapse of entire financial systems requiring government intervention every several years). Bastani makes the sound case, for instance, for reliance on solar energy, which, given modern innovations, allows for cheap and efficient energy capture and utilization of energy far beyond what we could ever require. Similarly, innovations in cellular biological and genetic engineering are addressing questions related to the agricultural, meat, and medical industries. I would recommend this book widely, as it's very accessible, grounded in scientific empiricism, bold in its visions of the future, and daring in its call to imagine a future in which humans fight for the right to thrive and liberate themselves from systems of wage slavery (i.e., needing to work to make money to survive). This last point is especially compelling given that, despite unprecedented leaps in technological innovations in recent decades that are meant to make life easier, more people are working longer hours for lower wages. This book is jam-packed with ideas that are clear, concise, and well thought out, such that capitalists and Marxists alike (and anyone in between) would benefit from this book of novel ideas and possible futures.
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
definitely an interesting thought experiment/reflection on the future. i don’t agree with a lot of it in that things that were touted as good I don’t think, well, are, but it was interesting to hear where our technology was going regardless, especially cast in this light. audio book was well done as well.
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced