I have yet to see a tech memoir where the author is being honest with themself and the reader, like, “I was a part of this and I know I screwed up. No excuses here.”
Careless People was a wild ride from the very beginning, with the unhinged parents and the author using the possible death of her sister as an inspiration to further stalk the Facebook woman.
And that scene at the end where a woman was dying in the office and nobody cared except for our heroic author? Come ooooooon…
Funny enough I couldn't get through Enshittification. Not because it was bad, but because I didn't feel like I was learning anything from it/taking anything away from it. I guess that's a negative side effect of being really "up on" how AI is impacting things, I didn't need to be educated on any of the basics or any of the solutions. So that's totally on me.
Empire of AI was by far my favorite of the year and also from this list. Karen did an amazing job breaking it all down, telling you about the human toll behind AI. Highly recommend. I also read it right after Unmasking AI, another one high on my list.
Thanks for the list, I am happy to see that I already have some of the books either under my belt or there waiting. I will definitely have to get the others!
i agree with you that Careless People is way to much a "I knew better but nobody listend to me". i would add, in its defence, that there are points that might feel more real like when she admits that she would not leave the company because of the stocks vesting (the famous golden handcufs) or medical insurance. That felt real enough toe :)
I'd add to your list "Automatic Noodle" by Annalee Newitz! It's fiction, and a really sweet found family story, but its core is about the ultimate ethics of creating true AIs and what their needs then are in society.
Love that am a fan of Annalee’s. I didn’t read as much fiction as I would have liked this year and am hoping to change that over the holidays. Thanks for the rec!
Can't wait till you get to read the Adam Becker book. Definitely my favorite as it gets at what the tech oligarchs see as the end game of their work justified by a sketchy moral theory.
I looked at a preview of The Mechanic and the Luddite. It does look somewhat promising. But Sadowski's characterization, in Chapter 1, of capitalism and class strikes me as a little outdated.
I love me some Das Kapital, but the dominant mode of economic control today, and thus the defining feature of the ruling classes today, seems no longer to be ownership of the means of production. The ruling classes today are defined by their control in financialization, rent-seeking, and private equity ventures.
My question to Brian is: Does Sadowski address the relationship between technology and this new dominant mode of profit-seeking?
Please bump More Everything Forever to the top of your pile! That one broke things open for me in a big way. I didn’t fully appreciate the extent to which these tech guys have embraced some unambiguously bizarre beliefs—TESCREAL (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TESCREAL?wprov=sfti1). I also enjoy any time someone points out how these guys just completely misunderstand everything about what is supposedly their favorite genre, science fiction.
I have yet to see a tech memoir where the author is being honest with themself and the reader, like, “I was a part of this and I know I screwed up. No excuses here.”
Careless People was a wild ride from the very beginning, with the unhinged parents and the author using the possible death of her sister as an inspiration to further stalk the Facebook woman.
And that scene at the end where a woman was dying in the office and nobody cared except for our heroic author? Come ooooooon…
(sorry for the spoilers, lol)
Funny enough I couldn't get through Enshittification. Not because it was bad, but because I didn't feel like I was learning anything from it/taking anything away from it. I guess that's a negative side effect of being really "up on" how AI is impacting things, I didn't need to be educated on any of the basics or any of the solutions. So that's totally on me.
Empire of AI was by far my favorite of the year and also from this list. Karen did an amazing job breaking it all down, telling you about the human toll behind AI. Highly recommend. I also read it right after Unmasking AI, another one high on my list.
Agreed, and the way she wrote it was really pulling me in.
Thanks for the list, I am happy to see that I already have some of the books either under my belt or there waiting. I will definitely have to get the others!
i agree with you that Careless People is way to much a "I knew better but nobody listend to me". i would add, in its defence, that there are points that might feel more real like when she admits that she would not leave the company because of the stocks vesting (the famous golden handcufs) or medical insurance. That felt real enough toe :)
I'd add to your list "Automatic Noodle" by Annalee Newitz! It's fiction, and a really sweet found family story, but its core is about the ultimate ethics of creating true AIs and what their needs then are in society.
Love that am a fan of Annalee’s. I didn’t read as much fiction as I would have liked this year and am hoping to change that over the holidays. Thanks for the rec!
Take a look at this video, 'equation return to me' https://share.google/IlUanq5lfsyizS6es
Not available on Spotify.. now there’s a recommendation.
Happy Christmas, Brian.
Can't wait till you get to read the Adam Becker book. Definitely my favorite as it gets at what the tech oligarchs see as the end game of their work justified by a sketchy moral theory.
I looked at a preview of The Mechanic and the Luddite. It does look somewhat promising. But Sadowski's characterization, in Chapter 1, of capitalism and class strikes me as a little outdated.
I love me some Das Kapital, but the dominant mode of economic control today, and thus the defining feature of the ruling classes today, seems no longer to be ownership of the means of production. The ruling classes today are defined by their control in financialization, rent-seeking, and private equity ventures.
My question to Brian is: Does Sadowski address the relationship between technology and this new dominant mode of profit-seeking?
Please bump More Everything Forever to the top of your pile! That one broke things open for me in a big way. I didn’t fully appreciate the extent to which these tech guys have embraced some unambiguously bizarre beliefs—TESCREAL (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TESCREAL?wprov=sfti1). I also enjoy any time someone points out how these guys just completely misunderstand everything about what is supposedly their favorite genre, science fiction.