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jmatthiass 's review for:
Fully Automated Luxury Communism
by Aaron Bastani
There are a lot of inspirational ideas in this book, and it's nice to read something that is both leftist and not incredibly dire, even if I understand why the latter trait is so integral to societal analysis. I personally believe that modern socialist politics needs to look more to the approach of post-scarcity—which, as this book mentions, is actually already here in a number of ways. (For instance, every person could conceivably "own" every ebook or mp3 for free, forever, with no restrictions. This is because we can perfectly and infinitely replicate digital files, but copyright, a completely outmoded system, keeps this replication from being legal.)
However, with regards to the book, a lot of the actual material analysis seems either overly optimistic or disconnected from applicability. Overall, then, FALC is a great read for getting some optimistic perspective on near-future technological advances and how they could be put to use by the left, but when it starts to draw actionable conclusions and set goals, things unravel a bit.
However, with regards to the book, a lot of the actual material analysis seems either overly optimistic or disconnected from applicability. Overall, then, FALC is a great read for getting some optimistic perspective on near-future technological advances and how they could be put to use by the left, but when it starts to draw actionable conclusions and set goals, things unravel a bit.