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Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires
Maybe someday
44
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
31/100Critics
4/100Scholars
98/100Author:
Douglas Rushkoff
Publisher:
W. W. Norton & Company
Date:
September 6, 2022
The tech elite have a plan to survive the apocalypse: they want to leave us all behind.
What The Reviewers Say
Numbing and mind-blowing in equal measure, Survival of the Richest is a true story that seems straight out of a science fiction tale..
Nothing that Rushkoff writes in this clipped, angry book should surprise most readers. Nobody who has spent any time tracking the pronouncements and feuds of the more futurist-minded tech elites would think many had a high opinion of or interest in improving the daily lot of carbon-based life forms. Though predictable and at times a bit too broadly defined, the depth of anti-humanist sentiment related by Rushkoff is still harrowing and illuminating.
The Insulation Equation is a provocative and illuminating concept, and Rushkoff devotes much of the book to tracing the manifestations and origins of a mind-set that seduces people into believing they can insulate themselves from harms they help create.
At this point we’re only a few pages into this book, and it seems as if there should be a wild ride ahead. Unfortunately, rather than studying the mad plans of the rich to survive the apocalypse, Rushkoff is far more interested in why they think one is coming, and how it informs everything they do, a view that trickles down to the rest of us. He calls this 'the Mindset'. The thing is, while the Mindset is interesting, it’s not nearly as interesting as the bonkers escape plans to which it leads.
