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The Ministry for the Future makes open source social media look easy. (en.m.wikipedia.org)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by vatlark to c/[email protected]

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I did like the book but I also thought they solved huge problems in a single short chapter with minimal detail.

In one chapter it's mentioned that one of the characters is working on some open source social media. A few chapters later it becomes the dominant social media in the world... oh and also payment method... Oh and blockchain...

Being a big fan of Lemmy, I think the book is a bit optimistic.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I thought that it wasn't handwaved away so much as discussed as being developed by a particularly skilled group as part of promoting a populist freedom oriented crypto, and funded internationally over years by the Ministry but as a minor project that blew up due to network effects kicking.

In that respect I thought it was realistic and while background to the main plot and characters, included as one of the better solutions that together all add up. I didn't mind it as reference rather than story, but thought "that would be an interesting story in its own right" and since KSR is not a software dweeb and typically doesn't go there, I would rather read a version by Stross or N. Stephenson.

[–] vatlark 1 points 5 days ago

The Three Body Problem also had a habit of coming up with really interesting concepts, which could have themselves been entire books, then dropping them after a chapter or two.

For example the device that could make anyone truly believe anything. They never got too techy about how it worked but after a chapter or two you really felt like you had explored some implications of such a technology on society.

I guess it's a bit much to ask a book about climate disaster to provide detailed insight into what the future may hold for Lemmy.

[–] Glemek 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I love Kim Stanley Robinson, but yeah, he is definitely handwaving past a lot of the feasibility and hard work involved in many of the solutions presented. He is just a writer throwing out ideas more than working thru the struggles of implementing and getting adoption of those ideas.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

To be fair, he focuses on some struggles more than others. In Ministry it's more about a few activists and one relevant bureaucrat organizing from top down and bottom up, and not really about labourers other than vignettes for context. Character development over plot for KSR, usually.

[–] vatlark 1 points 6 days ago

That's very fair.

[–] Zombiepirate 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

KSR is probably my favorite living author.

I think the book is supposed to be more "this is what is possible" than an actual roadmap.

His optimism is what I really like about his work; anyone can throw up their hands and give up, but that's a dereliction of duty. Believing that a better world is possible and worth fighting for is the point, in my opinion.

[–] vatlark 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I'll have to read more of their stuff. Which of their books is your favorite?

[–] Zombiepirate 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

My favorite is probably Aurora, in which a generation ship makes a voyage to Tau Ceti to set up a colony.

After that, I really enjoyed Galeleo's Dream, a time-travel story about the famous polymath and a plot to reshape the history of scientific thought.

And Shaman is also great: it's about the paleolithic people who painted the chauvet cave and their struggle to thrive in an impossibly harsh time.

And finally I also just finished The Years of Rice and Salt recently, and it's one that I know I'll have to re-read sometime. It's an alternate history about how the world would shake out if the population of Europe was wiped out by a plague in the 1400s and follows a set of characters reincarnating over the centuries.

[–] vatlark 2 points 6 days ago

Sweet! Thank you!