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Four Futures
- Life After Capitalism
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 3 hrs and 36 mins
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Publisher's summary
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 postcapitalist world might look, deploying the tools of both social science and speculative fiction to explore what communism, rentism, socialism, and exterminism might actually entail. Could the current rise of 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 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.
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- Unabridged
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Caradonna's unique and concise history broadens our understanding of what "sustainability" means, revealing how it progressed from a relatively marginal concept to an ideal that shapes everything from individual lifestyles, government and corporate strategies, and even national and international policy. For anyone seeking understand the history of those striving to make the world a better place to live, here's a place to start.
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Excellent
- By marc grub on 03-06-17
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A Brief History of the Future
- A Brave and Controversial Look at the Twenty-first Century
- By: Jacques Attali
- Narrated by: Alan Robertson
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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What will planet Earth be like in 20 years? At mid-century? In the year 2100? Prescient and convincing, this book is a must-read for anyone concerned about the future. Never has the world offered more promise for the future and been more fraught with dangers. In this powerful and sometimes terrifying work, Attali analyzes the past and pinpoints nine distinct periods of human history, each with its world center of power and prestige, and predicts what the tenth will bring by the end of this century.
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feels like a popular mechanics article
- By Robin on 07-11-17
By: Jacques Attali
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World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction
- A John Hope Franklin Center Book
- By: Immanuel Wallerstein
- Narrated by: Fred Filbrich
- Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In World-Systems Analysis, Immanuel Wallerstein provides a concise and accessible introduction to the comprehensive approach that he pioneered 30 years ago to understanding the history and development of the modern world. Since Wallerstein first developed world-systems analysis, it has become a widely utilized methodology within the historical social sciences and a common point of reference in discussions of globalization.
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Uneven, but Ambitious
- By Logical Paradox on 08-27-14
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Ill Fares the Land
- By: Tony Judt
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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In Ill Fares The Land, Tony Judt, one of our leading historians and thinkers, reveals how we have arrived at our present dangerously confused moment. Judt masterfully crystallizes what we've all been feeling into a way to think our way into, and thus out of, our great collective dis-ease about the current state of things.
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Blah, Blah, Blah.
- By Michael on 07-15-10
By: Tony Judt
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For a New Liberty
- The Libertarian Manifesto
- By: Murray N. Rothbard
- Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
- Length: 15 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, Rothbard proposes a once-and-for-all escape from the two major political parties, the ideologies they embrace, and their central plans for using state power against people. Libertarianism is Rothbard's radical alternative that says state power is unworkable and immoral, and ought to be curbed and finally overthrown.
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I'm a Ron Paul Libertarian but this is a good
- By monte reed on 03-20-12
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Someone Has to Say It
- The Hidden History of How America Was Lost
- By: Tom Kawczynski
- Narrated by: Jeff Winston
- Length: 5 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Starting at the turn of the last century, this book lays out systematically how Americans have lost control of our government, of our civil society, of our schools, of our companies, and in many cases, even our families.
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Great and inspiring book
- By K. E. Davila on 07-09-20
By: Tom Kawczynski
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Decline and Fall
- The End of Empire and the Future of Democracy in 21st Century America
- By: John Michael Greer
- Narrated by: Kristoffer Tabori
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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The decline and fall of America's global empire is the central feature of today's geopolitical landscape, and the nature of our response to it will determine much of our future trajectory, with implications that reach far beyond the limits of one nation's borders. Decline and Fall: The End of Empire and the Future of Democracy in 21st Century America challenges the conventional wisdom of empire, using a wealth of historical examples combined with groundbreaking original analysis.
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Will insist friends & family read this book
- By Paul on 05-14-16
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The Complacent Class
- The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream
- By: Tyler Cowen
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Since Alexis de Tocqueville, restlessness has been accepted as a signature American trait. Our willingness to move, take risks, and adapt to change have produced a dynamic economy and a tradition of innovation from Ben Franklin to Steve Jobs. The problem, according to legendary blogger, economist, and best-selling author Tyler Cowen, is that Americans today have broken from this tradition - we're working harder than ever to avoid change.
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MUST READ
- By RJW on 05-06-17
By: Tyler Cowen
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Refuge
- Rethinking Refugee Policy in a Changing World
- By: Paul Collier, Alexander Betts
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Refuge seeks to restore moral purpose and clarity to refugee policy. Rather than assuming indefinite dependency, Collier - author of The Bottom Billion - and his Oxford colleague Betts propose a humanitarian approach integrated with a new economic agenda that begins with jobs, restores autonomy, and rebuilds people's ability to help themselves and their societies.
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Academic
- By Jonah on 09-30-19
By: Paul Collier, and others
What listeners say about Four Futures
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jammie
- 06-03-24
A Thought-Provoking Exercise
This book is a masterful thought experiment that serves to help us engage with potentially disasterous or enriching possibilities lying not so far into our future. While not striving to be purely objective, the author seeks to get us engaged in real constructive thought about the future of humanity in the wake of climate change and automation, which is sorely lacking from contemporary conversations about either.
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- Jill M
- 07-19-24
Concise but full of great info
Loved the length. At 2X you can finish it in an afternoon. Absolutely love being able to read a book in a day.
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- Wendy
- 08-28-18
Fantastic
The topics are complex but is written clearly in simple language. Definitely a good book for the more political-conscious societies nowadays. Love the simplicity, comprehensiveness and also the occasional jabs of sarcasm :)
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-06-19
short and sweet
needed a short listen, but this was so filled with thought provoking ideas and those ideas were so well referenced that I must buy the book. I look forward to going deep on the possible futures introduced here.
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- sarah slate
- 02-21-20
A book well thought out piece
I can't help but feel increasingly nihilistic after reading this book. The rich are just going to kill us all.
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- Olivia Wylie
- 05-11-20
A clean, conscise and refreshing exploration
Positing--as he describes it-- two socialisms and two barbarisms. Two heavens and two hells. Frase delves into the possibilities of four ways the future might play out. He classifies them as:
Communism: a world of abundance and equality
Socialism: a world of scarcity and equality
Rentism: a world of abundance and inequality
Exterminism: a world of scarcity and inequality
Using refreshing examples from pop culture right beside carefully researched study on economics, history and upcoming technologies, Frase lays out how we could end up in each world, and its various functions and priorities. Heads up, this is not a get-out-the-guillotines rail against capitalist society, at all. It's simply an observation that all societies change, and that the current model depends on a system of inputs that aren't going to be out there forever. Technology is also changing the types of work there are to do with human hands. Society will change. That's a given. This book discusses what it can change into.
I'll say this up front: I listened to the audiobook, and man the reader is dry. It nearly turned me off what is a really engaging and interesting book. Cogently put and up front about everything, Futures doesn't try to stay scientifically objective: it engages with the fact that we want one of the good futures. The question is how to get them. And it lays out solid suggestions on that, as well as delving into lots of pop literature and movies on the subject. This had a leavening effect on what could have been a really stolid work. The author even made Disney world jokes. I was a little thrown by the fact that the book decided to start with the good futures and end with the worst outcome of all, but the approach works, leaving us with a balanced and cautious optimism tempered by warnings for what to watch out for going forward. I found it approachable and often fun, if a little prone to be ponderous. But I guess a little pomposity is impossible to avoid in a work like this.
What I like best about this book is its stress on the importance that tech isn't going to decide our future: people will. In the mindsets we cultivate within our societies, the choices we make as individuals and nations, and the stories we tell, we're shaping the future every day. It also reminded me, as a writer, to keep working hard to tell hopeful stories. Because, as this book says 'we can all imagine the end of the world, but few of us can imagine the end of capitalism'.
This is a clean, concise and refreshing exploration of futures, with a pragmatically optimistic outlook. Well worth the read
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1 person found this helpful
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- Natalie
- 04-11-24
Am interesting thought experiment
This was quick, so I gave it a listen. It was a fun thought experiment and I liked it. It is, as the author admits, fanciful and metaphorical more than literal. That means he was able to tie it back to where we are now. Very compelling.
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- Anonymous User
- 06-23-17
A great read for futurists
Loved it. Great narrator. Easy read. Amazing content. Perfect for people who like pondering the future.
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2 people found this helpful
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- James Hanna
- 08-23-21
Excellent work
Sober thoughtful and well constructed. The author has done an impressive job trimming any fat. Brief but powerful, avoids proselytizing or easy solutions.
A+
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- MacBookUser
- 01-29-22
Loved this
Loved this. I’m starting a second read. Outlines a multitude of ideas pulled from areas of fiction & nonfiction thinking I didn’t know existed. And does so in the most rational, convincing tone.
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