About:
Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis attempts to show how big tech is taking over democracy with a new system. Mr. Varoufakis is a Greek economist, politician, and author.
- Publisher : Bodley Head
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 1847927270
My rating for Technofeudalism – 4
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More books by Yanis Varoufakis*
Thoughts:
This was a very interesting book, which gave me a lot to think about. While I don’t agree with some of the author’s views, especially his particular embrace of Marxism, he’s an economist, and I’m just a schmo.
Mr. Varoufakis starts his book, a letter to his late father, with a very short history of how economics shaped societies and their evolution. He also defines several terms that greatly help in understanding some of the theories he discusses.
There are many interesting ideas in Technofeudalism by Yanis Varoufakis, including how traditional capitalists are going to simply be vassals to big tech. At the same time, we regular folks supply the very cheap or free labor/information for them to make their money on.
This book made me think, and at this point, we can watch some of Mr. Varoufakis’ ideas come to fruition in real time. Maybe it has been longer, but I’m just paying attention to it more.
There is no doubt that the forces of technology are unleashing a huge disturbance in the markets around the world. This book certainly shines a light on the disturbance and talks about why leaders and politicians either embrace, ignore, or are simply powerless to do anything about it.
I was very interested in the sections about cryptocurrency and how it might change the world. It’s difficult for me to see the benefits of cryptocurrency for governments as it is today, but I’m sure they’ll find a way to either govern it or get steamrolled.
At the end, the author writes about his ideal world of social-democracy and how it might work. Personally, I don’t think it’s realistic since it goes against human nature. I was surprised to learn that he was a politician since, it seems, realpolitik is a foreign concept.
Buy Technofeudalism Amazon.com*
More books by Yanis Varoufakis*
Zohar — Man of la Book
Disclaimer: I bought this book
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