3w ago

The Ministry for the Future makes open source social media look easy.

en.m.wikipedia.org The Ministry for the Future - Wikipedia

I did like the book but I also thought they solved huge problems in a single short chapter with minimal detail.

In one chapter it's mentioned that one of the characters is working on some open source social media. A few chapters later it becomes the dominant social media in the world... oh and also payment method... Oh and blockchain...

Being a big fan of Lemmy, I think the book is a bit optimistic.

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KSR is probably my favorite living author.
I think the book is supposed to be more "this is what is possible" than an actual roadmap.
His optimism is what I really like about his work; anyone can throw up their hands and give up, but that's a dereliction of duty. Believing that a better world is possible and worth fighting for is the point, in my opinion.
- I'll have to read more of their stuff. Which of their books is your favorite?
  
  My favorite is probably Aurora, in which a generation ship makes a voyage to Tau Ceti to set up a colony.
  After that, I really enjoyed Galeleo's Dream, a time-travel story about the famous polymath and a plot to reshape the history of scientific thought.
  And Shaman is also great: it's about the paleolithic people who painted the chauvet cave and their struggle to thrive in an impossibly harsh time.
  And finally I also just finished The Years of Rice and Salt recently, and it's one that I know I'll have to re-read sometime. It's an alternate history about how the world would shake out if the population of Europe was wiped out by a plague in the 1400s and follows a set of characters reincarnating over the centuries.
  
  Sweet! Thank you!

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