Jonathan Taplin

Gebundenes Buch

The End of Reality

How Four Billionaires Are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto

Beschreibung

"At a time when the crises of income inequality, climate, and democracy are compounding to create epic wealth disparity and the prospect of a second American civil war, four billionaires are hyping schemes that are designed to divert our attention away from issues that really matter. Each scheme--the metaverse, cryptocurrency, space travel, and transhumanism--is an existential threat in moral, political, and economic terms. In [this book], Jonathan Taplin [examines] the personal backgrounds and cultural power of these billionaires--Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Marc Andreesen ('The Four')--and shows how their tech monopolies have brought middle-class wage stagnation, the hollowing out of many American towns, a radical increase in income inequality, and unbounded public acrimony. Meanwhile, the enormous amount of taxpayer money to be funneled into the dystopian ventures of 'The Four'--the benefits of which will accrue to billionaires-- [exacerbates] these disturbing trends"--

Autor

Jonathan Taplin is a public intellectual, writer, film producer, and scholar. He is the director emeritus of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California and professor at the USC Annenberg School from in the field of international communication management and digital media entertainment. His extraordinary journey has put him at the crest of every major cultural wave in the past half century: he was tour manager for Bob Dylan and the Band, producer of major films such as Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets, an executive at Merrill Lynch, creator of the Internet’s first video-on-demand service  and a cultural critic and author writing about technology in the new millennium.  

Produktdetails

• Verlag: PublicAffairs
• Seitenzahl: 336
• Erscheinungstermin: 5. September 2023
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 239mm x 152mm x 36mm
• Gewicht: 546g
• ISBN-13: 9781541703155
• ISBN-10: 1541703154
• Artikelnr.: 67135973