Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Four Futures: Life After Capitalism
    Four Futures: Life After Capitalism
    Four Futures: Life After Capitalism
    Audiobook3 hours

    Four Futures: Life After Capitalism

    Written by Peter Frase

    Narrated by Bob Souer

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    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, 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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMay 30, 2017
    ISBN9781541475830

    Related to Four Futures

    Related audiobooks

    Social Science For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Marxist Mechanics

      Jun 19, 2022

      Marxist Mechanics
      2 min read

    • Article

      Why Socialism Won't Work.

      Jan 21, 2020

      Why Socialism Won't Work.
      6 min read

    • Article

      After Capitalism

      Jan 21, 2020

      After Capitalism
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Impact Of Automation On The Future Of Work And Beyond

      Oct 30, 2020

      We are witnessing a significant transformation in the way societies, countries, institutions, and economies function with the onset of the fourth industrial revolution. The rise of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML)

      6 min read

    • Article

      Fewer Jobs, More Machines

      Aug 7, 2020

      Fewer Jobs, More Machines
      12 min read

    • Article

      Learning To Work With Robots

      Jul 16, 2018

      Learning To Work With Robots
      12 min read

    • Article

      Can’t See For Miles

      May 6, 2018

      Can’t See For Miles
      7 min read

    • Article

      Heart Of The Matter

      Dec 25, 2018

      Heart Of The Matter
      4 min read

    • Article

      Who Will Win the Race for AI?

      Jan 22, 2019

      Who Will Win the Race for AI?
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Trouble With Tech

      Dec 11, 2019

      The Trouble With Tech
      7 min read

    • Article

      Don’t Fear The Rise Of The Robots

      Mar 17, 2023

      branko2f7.substack.com The rise of the robots is seen as a novel threat that could upend our whole way of life, says Branko Milanovic. In reality, this is nothing new. The introduction of machinery to replace repetitive or even creative labour has b

      1 min read

    • Article

      Web Of Life

      Mar 26, 2018

      WORDS DEON BRAUN Are you already on the IOT wave? Let us know! trailplanet@trailmag.co.za This is a story about good and bad, smart and short-sighted, about a bright future or the demise of the human race and most of the life on planet Earth. It's ab

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Four Futures

    4/5

    291 ratings24 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5

      Hurey for depopulation. Hurey for a new road to bright future. Without us. Normals

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Short and tight. Reminds me of Bertand Russell's Roads to Freedom, which is a huge compliment. I imagine the obvious Marxist bent might turn some readers off, but Marx was a brilliant historian and maybe a worse political theorist so I always take it as read.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Excellent little book written with incredible wit and research. If you are a Socialist or further Left and someone wants a reason why suggest this book.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book, it makes good points, particularly the recognition of the dirty multidirectional nature of the reality of human society, but I do think that it forgets the truth we've seen repeatedly about communism in history, which is basically that it inevitably gets claimed by tyrants.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Good stuff. It goes from scary, to hopeful, to inspiring, to scary. He does a good job painting realistic visions of the future, as well as idealistic, and it's entertaining along the way. Easy listening.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      The future scenarios presented here are not solitary options but they are intertwined.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Decent idea but the execution wasn't sufficiently detailed or comprehensive.
    • 5/5
      Does a good job of using pop culture and history to explain the possibility of impending doom :o
    • 4/5
      This book is interesting if you are interested in economics!!
    • 4/5
      It’s a good read and very current. A bit extreme at moments but overall interesting overview of the possible future of society.
    • 5/5
      It gives a reasonable picture, based on the authors two axis’ of importance, of the resulting possibilities of our future. He just got into it at the end and I wish he talked more about how “humanity doesn’t give a damn about the victims of history.” With one notable exception: victims of communism. This aberration is fertile ground for another separate book in my opinion.
    • 5/5
      Fascinating work at intersection of sci fi and social sciences.
    • 5/5
      Relevant and insightful. I can't stop speculating which wil be.
    • 5/5
      Its an exact depiction to the world we live in now. We are currently living all four futures at its basic levels. And those levels will only increase as time and generations go by.
    • 3/5
      Overall an enjoyable book. I only have one question for the author: how did the rich in capitalism get rich? Because if the rich are the bad guys but anyone in a free market can arguably get rich in the market, then why are they the bad guys that need to be overthrown. I think that having a free market means anyone can use the market to accumulate wealth.
    • 4/5
      Good thoughts, not dogmatic, and open-ended. It's like food for thought, and some really interesting recommendations for future reading within the discussion.
    • 4/5
      The book offers two heavens and two hells: two ways that automation might facilitate a flourishing of human life, and two ways that it might maximize human misery. In all of these potential futures, automation is the constant; what changes is the political and ecological context – in other words, who owns the robots and how climate change affects the resources on which technology depends.
    • 5/5
      everyone should read this. i suggest reading 'homo deus' by yuval noah harari and contrasting it with 'four futures'.
    • 1/5
      The author praises criminals and the lazy while condemning the police and hard working.
    • 1/5
      It is amazing with what sort kf fairy tales some people live. Communism is a system of abundance and equality - despite all iterations of it in history proving the exact opposite to be true, police violace is disproportionatetowards specific demographic on racial basis only, etc. etc. It’s been interesting to hear what leftist radicals believe in but also quite disturbing.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      A sprightly and astute read.
    • 5/5
      The truth about the future is that none of us really know what it holds. The above, indisputable fact, makes most of this type of book almost not worth reading. Peter Frase has tried to overcome this problem by projecting four different perspectives: communism, rentism, socialism and exterminism. He also accepts that the 'real' future is unlikely to be a pure version of any of these alternatives but, a mixture of several.It is easy, as I appeared to do, in the first sentence of this review, to dismiss prediction but, the alternative is to go blindly where ever life may lead. We need some form of planning and, to mash up and misuse a well known phrase, a one eyed man is a better guide than a blind one.This book is only 150 pages long and has been written in a style accessible to the common reader (and I should know: there's few commoner). As with any book of this type, one doesn't read it for all the answers, but to obtain a better grasp of all the questions and, Mr Frase does a very good job of that. Well worth a read.
    • 4/5
      This was very good, and whoo boy do recent events seem to verify the 'Mad Max' version. Fight to the last because we fear the worst.
    • 5/5
      One thing about the future – it is universally grim. I have yet to see a book where it is bright, inviting or even comfortable. But Peter Frase’s is the fairest assessment I have yet encountered. He has created a matrix of possible outcomes, and examines the four of them as chapters in Four Futures. They are all plausible, all arguable, and all to be avoided.The four scenarios include aspects of socialism, communism and extermism, in which the rich annihilate the poor in a society where the poor are no longer necessary for anything. Machines do all the labor, from picking fruit to guarding fortress homes. If the planet has been destroyed environmentally, the rich will escape to orbiting luxury space stations. But the most frightening one to me was also the most possible – the rentier future. In this scenario, there are no more factories, no more developments or mines. Instead, the rich own all the intellectual property, and rent it out. No one actually owns anything; they must pay continuously to license and operate it. We already see this in software, music, TV, games, phones, in agricultural seeds, and of course in living quarters. Everything in Western life is being converted to subscription, with payment removed directly from bank accounts. John Deere claims you never own your tractor – you merely license it while you use it, despite having paid to own it. So tampering with the motor or the electronics makes you a criminal. That is a horrifying future to me. It is well underway and is every startup’s dream business model.The only thing certain is that we can’t go back to an industrial revolution civilization. Factories are going away. The gig economy keeps the 99% on the prowl to scratch together a living. 3-D printing is on its way in (though you won’t own the printer or the product codes, and there will severe restrictions on what you can produce with one), providing a kind of Star-Trek “Replicator” future. So depending on how we occupy our plentiful time, how much abundance there is versus scarcity, and how powerful the rich become, one of Frase’s scenarios is likely.Naturally, these are not prescriptive choices; there is no pure vision or outcome. They can and will have elements of each other, and Frase points out several crossovers along the way. Mostly, Four Futures is an intellectual challenge. It is a very fast read, couched in the pop culture visions of sci-fi writers and dystopian-future films, things that are very easy to relate to. It is a pleasure to be so challenged, even if the result is less than heartwarming.David Wineberg