Community Reviews
PART ONE: PERSPECTIVE
Chapter One: Our Grandest Challenge
Chapter Two: Building the Pyramid
Chapter Three: Seeing the Forest Through the Trees
Chapter Four: It’s Not as Bad as You Think
6/10
Very mediocre. Pinker has written several books about this already. The promise of a liberal utopia where all politicians are Obama and Bernie Sanders. Of course this book is not left-leaning and just promises technological utopia yet it's basically the same idea. Maybe it felt more fresh in 2012? Reading it now I wonder what the point is as this is a theory made popular by Pinker and he did a way better job at collecting evidence of progress. This book feels like a child friendly version of Pinker's books.
PART TWO: EXPONENTIAL TECHNOLOGIES
Chapter Five: Ray Kurzweil and the Go-Fast Button
Chapter Six: The Singularity Is Nearer
5/10
About how technology will save the world and make people happier and give them more freetime. Weirdly enough it's both premature and outdated. Premature because nothing of the stuff they predicted in 2012 is here in 2022. We don't have advanced AI or self-driving trucks driving our goods around. At the same time it's also outdated as 10 years have passed and we would be way more careful about further predictions now seeing how nothing much happened in those 10 years. And many of their points can be made better with modern tech examples.
PART THREE: BUILDING THE BASE OF THE PYRAMID
Chapter Seven: The Tools of Cooperation
Chapter Eight: Water
Chapter Nine: Feeding Nine Billion
5/10
More guessing game stuff. The book so far has just been guessing on what will happen. Some new company invented a groundbreaking bottle that will clean water worldwide. Well, nice, but it's just a sleazy sales pitch like the ones made on GoFundMe every week. 10 years later it's still not a thing. And even if it was the chapter would still be predicting things not explained why their theory is right in the moment they wrote the book. They could be focusing on technology that is already proven that will spread to poorer countries and improve crop yield or water supply. Instead the book feels like some young hipster project or a very iffy sales pitch by Elon Musk promising that all cars will be self-driven in 3 years. You can always find men promising you their new technology is wonderful.
PART FOUR: THE FORCES OF ABUNDANCE
Chapter Ten: The DIY Innovator
Chapter Eleven: The Technophilanthropists
Chapter Twelve: The Rising Billion
5/10
Mainly about new young tech billionaires wanting to spend their money on improving the world. This is legit. Back 100 years ago you would need to wait for them to grow old or die. Tech was not a thing and it took a long time for men to get rich. Now they want to do fun projects fast and with news from all over the world you can even pick other countries to help out. Besides supporting the book title these chapters feel empty. It's not deep intellectual stuff. Rather it feels like stuff you may as well have learned from a 10 min Youtube video.
PART FIVE: PEAK OF THE PYRAMID
Chapter Thirteen: Energy
Chapter Fourteen: Education
Chapter Fifteen: Health Care
Chapter Sixteen: Freedom
6/10
The education chapter is the only chapter so far that made me think and wonder. The other chapters were predictions about technology. Basically, it could happen in 30 years or 300 years. But likely yeah, we will get some cheaper energy and self-driving cars, that's something ALL agree on. The education chapter predicts how video games will take over education as schools are too boring and focused on memorizing small facts and numbers instead of understanding. In a video game you solve stuff your own way. You keep trying and trying and get to the end like everyone else, but doing it in your own pace and having a ton of fun. It's not a lazy prediction about technology. It's about how technology will change all schools forever and make schooling cheaper and more effective at the same time. And their prediction here is of course again spot on. For this we already had the technology 20 years ago though it's just about implementing it. You need to develop enough games and videos to replace most classes.
The other 3 chapters are same old. Kinda predictable and dry. If you watch news you will already have seen 100 times more predictions than this.
PART SIX: STEERING FASTER
Chapter Seventeen: Driving Innovation and Breakthroughs
Chapter Eighteen: Risk and Failure
Chapter Nineteen: Which Way Next?
4/10
Again predictable stuff on a low level. This is below high school level info and it's already outdated.
My final opinion on the book
I don't know. It's not a bad book. There is a ton of info about technological developments. All outdated and none of it even 10 years later is close to being realized. But I guess as time passed we will have all this technology and 100 time more. Maybe in 2012 this book was on the forefront of development and a huge info boost for nerds seeking deeper info on what technology is developed where. But it's dry. No humor, no clever statements, few personal stories, no deep ideas besides the computer games replacing schooling theory. It's not a book you should actively avoid reading or listening to on audiobook. But I don't see any great reason for listening to it. Just go on Youtube and search up technology videos. You will find all this and more and always up to date.
Chapter One: Our Grandest Challenge
Chapter Two: Building the Pyramid
Chapter Three: Seeing the Forest Through the Trees
Chapter Four: It’s Not as Bad as You Think
6/10
Very mediocre. Pinker has written several books about this already. The promise of a liberal utopia where all politicians are Obama and Bernie Sanders. Of course this book is not left-leaning and just promises technological utopia yet it's basically the same idea. Maybe it felt more fresh in 2012? Reading it now I wonder what the point is as this is a theory made popular by Pinker and he did a way better job at collecting evidence of progress. This book feels like a child friendly version of Pinker's books.
PART TWO: EXPONENTIAL TECHNOLOGIES
Chapter Five: Ray Kurzweil and the Go-Fast Button
Chapter Six: The Singularity Is Nearer
5/10
About how technology will save the world and make people happier and give them more freetime. Weirdly enough it's both premature and outdated. Premature because nothing of the stuff they predicted in 2012 is here in 2022. We don't have advanced AI or self-driving trucks driving our goods around. At the same time it's also outdated as 10 years have passed and we would be way more careful about further predictions now seeing how nothing much happened in those 10 years. And many of their points can be made better with modern tech examples.
PART THREE: BUILDING THE BASE OF THE PYRAMID
Chapter Seven: The Tools of Cooperation
Chapter Eight: Water
Chapter Nine: Feeding Nine Billion
5/10
More guessing game stuff. The book so far has just been guessing on what will happen. Some new company invented a groundbreaking bottle that will clean water worldwide. Well, nice, but it's just a sleazy sales pitch like the ones made on GoFundMe every week. 10 years later it's still not a thing. And even if it was the chapter would still be predicting things not explained why their theory is right in the moment they wrote the book. They could be focusing on technology that is already proven that will spread to poorer countries and improve crop yield or water supply. Instead the book feels like some young hipster project or a very iffy sales pitch by Elon Musk promising that all cars will be self-driven in 3 years. You can always find men promising you their new technology is wonderful.
PART FOUR: THE FORCES OF ABUNDANCE
Chapter Ten: The DIY Innovator
Chapter Eleven: The Technophilanthropists
Chapter Twelve: The Rising Billion
5/10
Mainly about new young tech billionaires wanting to spend their money on improving the world. This is legit. Back 100 years ago you would need to wait for them to grow old or die. Tech was not a thing and it took a long time for men to get rich. Now they want to do fun projects fast and with news from all over the world you can even pick other countries to help out. Besides supporting the book title these chapters feel empty. It's not deep intellectual stuff. Rather it feels like stuff you may as well have learned from a 10 min Youtube video.
PART FIVE: PEAK OF THE PYRAMID
Chapter Thirteen: Energy
Chapter Fourteen: Education
Chapter Fifteen: Health Care
Chapter Sixteen: Freedom
6/10
The education chapter is the only chapter so far that made me think and wonder. The other chapters were predictions about technology. Basically, it could happen in 30 years or 300 years. But likely yeah, we will get some cheaper energy and self-driving cars, that's something ALL agree on. The education chapter predicts how video games will take over education as schools are too boring and focused on memorizing small facts and numbers instead of understanding. In a video game you solve stuff your own way. You keep trying and trying and get to the end like everyone else, but doing it in your own pace and having a ton of fun. It's not a lazy prediction about technology. It's about how technology will change all schools forever and make schooling cheaper and more effective at the same time. And their prediction here is of course again spot on. For this we already had the technology 20 years ago though it's just about implementing it. You need to develop enough games and videos to replace most classes.
The other 3 chapters are same old. Kinda predictable and dry. If you watch news you will already have seen 100 times more predictions than this.
PART SIX: STEERING FASTER
Chapter Seventeen: Driving Innovation and Breakthroughs
Chapter Eighteen: Risk and Failure
Chapter Nineteen: Which Way Next?
4/10
Again predictable stuff on a low level. This is below high school level info and it's already outdated.
My final opinion on the book
I don't know. It's not a bad book. There is a ton of info about technological developments. All outdated and none of it even 10 years later is close to being realized. But I guess as time passed we will have all this technology and 100 time more. Maybe in 2012 this book was on the forefront of development and a huge info boost for nerds seeking deeper info on what technology is developed where. But it's dry. No humor, no clever statements, few personal stories, no deep ideas besides the computer games replacing schooling theory. It's not a book you should actively avoid reading or listening to on audiobook. But I don't see any great reason for listening to it. Just go on Youtube and search up technology videos. You will find all this and more and always up to date.
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