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There are also books critical of the U.S. right-wing, evangelists, left-wing identity politics, and Big Tech. So do you think the three specific topics you’re

There are also books critical of the U.S. right-wing, evangelists, left-wing identity politics, and Big Tech. So do you think the three specific topics you’re referring to are unworthy of discussion? Or should China be off the table entirely?

okasaki 3y ago
I don't see any books on there critical of big tech, in fact it seems rather the opposite?? The Geek Way. By Andrew McAfee. Little, Brown; 336 pages; $30. Pan Macmillan; £22 A technology-and-business guru at mit explains how the mindset that inspires Silicon Valley could be usefully applied in life and in other fields of business, with a focus on teamwork, producing prototypes quickly and avoiding bureaucracy through individual accountability. Scaling People. By Claire Hughes Johnson. Stripe Press; 480 pages; $30 and £21.99 Good books about the nuts and bolts of management are vanishingly rare. A former executive at Google and Stripe offers a practical guide to everything from giving feedback and delegating to running a meeting and building teams. The Coming Wave. By Mustafa Suleyman, with Michael Bhaskar. Crown; 352 pages; $32.50. Bodley Head; $32.50 A cogent look at the potential of ai to transform the economy and society, along with the risks of misuse and surveillance. By a co-founder of DeepMind, a leading ai company, and board member of The Economist’s parent company.
- mypastself 3y ago
  Seems like the one book addresses responsibilities of Big Tech for risks of AI misuse and surveillance. But even without that one, my point still stands. Do you think the China-related topics should not be addressed and, say, the ones on the U.S. left-wing culture war and religious right-wingers should stay?
  - okasaki 3y ago
    I skimmed it, it does not appear to address that. From the author's own words: What emerges will, I think, tend in two directions with a spectrum of outcomes in between. On one trajectory, some liberal democratic states will continue to be eroded from within, becoming a kind of zombie government. Trappings of liberal democracy and the traditional nation-state remain, but functionally they are hollowed out, the core services increasingly threadbare, the polity unstable and fractious. Lurching on in the absence of anything else, they become ever more degraded and dysfunctional. On another, unthinking adoption of some aspects of the coming wave opens pathways to domineering state control, creating supercharged Leviathans whose power goes beyond even history’s most extreme totalitarian governments. Authoritarian regimes may also tend toward zombie status, but equally they may double down, get boosted, become fully fledged techno-dictatorships. On either path, the delicate balance holding states together is tipped into chaos. So, the usual neoliberal-hypetripe. As for what should be addressed, it's a free country, you can address whatever you want. I just think that if I picked 55 books to read in 2023, I wouldn't pick 3 China Bad books.
    - mypastself 3y ago
      Based on your quote, seems like there’s an expectation from the author that Western governments will become increasingly authoritarian. Doesn’t seem like an uncritical embrace of the tech, even if it is a clichéd formulation. How many South Korea Bad books would you want to read? Or Japan Bad? There are more of those on the list than those about China when adjusting for population.

okasaki 3y ago

I don't see any books on there critical of big tech, in fact it seems rather the opposite?? The Geek Way. By Andrew McAfee. Little, Brown; 336 pages; $30. Pan Macmillan; £22 A technology-and-business guru at mit explains how the mindset that inspires Silicon Valley could be usefully applied in life and in other fields of business, with a focus on teamwork, producing prototypes quickly and avoiding bureaucracy through individual accountability. Scaling People. By Claire Hughes Johnson. Stripe Press; 480 pages; $30 and £21.99 Good books about the nuts and bolts of management are vanishingly rare. A former executive at Google and Stripe offers a practical guide to everything from giving feedback and delegating to running a meeting and building teams. The Coming Wave. By Mustafa Suleyman, with Michael Bhaskar. Crown; 352 pages; $32.50. Bodley Head; $32.50 A cogent look at the potential of ai to transform the economy and society, along with the risks of misuse and surveillance. By a co-founder of DeepMind, a leading ai company, and board member of The Economist’s parent company.

mypastself 3y ago
Seems like the one book addresses responsibilities of Big Tech for risks of AI misuse and surveillance. But even without that one, my point still stands. Do you think the China-related topics should not be addressed and, say, the ones on the U.S. left-wing culture war and religious right-wingers should stay?
- okasaki 3y ago
  I skimmed it, it does not appear to address that. From the author's own words: What emerges will, I think, tend in two directions with a spectrum of outcomes in between. On one trajectory, some liberal democratic states will continue to be eroded from within, becoming a kind of zombie government. Trappings of liberal democracy and the traditional nation-state remain, but functionally they are hollowed out, the core services increasingly threadbare, the polity unstable and fractious. Lurching on in the absence of anything else, they become ever more degraded and dysfunctional. On another, unthinking adoption of some aspects of the coming wave opens pathways to domineering state control, creating supercharged Leviathans whose power goes beyond even history’s most extreme totalitarian governments. Authoritarian regimes may also tend toward zombie status, but equally they may double down, get boosted, become fully fledged techno-dictatorships. On either path, the delicate balance holding states together is tipped into chaos. So, the usual neoliberal-hypetripe. As for what should be addressed, it's a free country, you can address whatever you want. I just think that if I picked 55 books to read in 2023, I wouldn't pick 3 China Bad books.
  - mypastself 3y ago
    Based on your quote, seems like there’s an expectation from the author that Western governments will become increasingly authoritarian. Doesn’t seem like an uncritical embrace of the tech, even if it is a clichéd formulation. How many South Korea Bad books would you want to read? Or Japan Bad? There are more of those on the list than those about China when adjusting for population.