from Facebook

An exploration of the utopias and dystopias that could develop from present society…

Book signing and discussion with Peter Frase, author of Four Futures: Life After Capitalism.

Peter Frase argues that increasing automation and a growing scarcity of resources, thanks to climate change, will bring it all tumbling down. In Four Futures, Frase imagines how this post-capitalist world might look, deploying the tools of both social science and speculative fiction to explore what communism, rentism and extermininsm might actually entail.

Could the current rise of the real-life robocops usher in a world that resembles Ender’s Game? And sure, communism will bring an end to material scarcities and inequalities of wealth—but there’s no guarantee that social hierarchies, governed by an economy of “likes,” wouldn’t rise to take their place. A whirlwind tour through science fiction, social theory and the new technologies are already shaping our lives, Four Futures is a balance sheet of the socialisms we may reach if a resurgent Left is successful, and the barbarisms we may be consigned to if those movements fail.

[October 19 from 7pm to 9pm at Wooden Shoe Books 704 South St]

——-

“Are robots eating our jobs? Will technology set us free? These questions aren’t new, but Frase’s approach to answering them is refreshingly inventive. Four Futures is a thought-provoking work of political speculation. This incisive little book offers the vital reminder that nothing is set in stone—or silicon—and that in oder to fight for a better world we first need to be able to imagine it.”
– Astra Taylor, author of The People’s Platform

“An engaging thought experiment on the intersection of technology and the environment. Indeed, as we ponder the interplay between digital abundance and physical scarcity, the digital industrialist solutions of most thinkers in this space pale in comparison to Frase’s more open-minded, less deterministic understanding of the future unfolding before us.”
– Douglas Rushkoff, author of Program or Be Programmed

“A remarkably clear-eyed view of the future we’re facing, bringing humor and intelligence to the lab of speculative fiction to create four smart and sharply lit early warning signals.”
– Warren Ellis, author of Gun Machine and Transmetropolitan