A worthy study in politics, technology, and the possibilities of remaking democracy in order to save it.
Systems engineer and entrepreneur Zarkadakis proposes a novel, hybrid approach to a system of governance that is increasingly entrusted to machines.
“More than half the people living in liberal democracies are disillusioned with their political system,” writes the author in this clear-minded critique of the present state of democratic rule, adding that 54% believe that “their voice does not have an impact on political decisions” and nearly two-thirds “think their government does not act in their interest.” That takes democracy far past the point of dysfunction into the critical-care unit, but the technocrats will not be moved. Zarkadakis opens his narrative by relating the collapse of one of his businesses after the Greek government accepted the harsh austerity measures of the EU, adding impossible debt to the economy even as Greek citizens rejected these draconian restrictions. Zarkadakis provocatively writes that the conduct of government and economies by artificial intelligence, by which 500 traders in a leading bank are replaced by computers and three staffers, might well flourish better under communism than capitalism, since citizens of communist states would have social protections that their counterparts in democratic states do not, leaving them to face “poverty and destitution.” But this isn’t a zero-sum game. As the author writes, the better course is to develop a hybrid system of governance that sends some decisions to local communities, erasing “knowledge asymmetries” in the interest of problem-solving that better engages the will and consent of the electorate. This entails restoring the checks and balances that prevent the exercise of the “tyranny of the majority” and the indifferent rule of an entrenched political class. Some decisions can even be made by AI, but the key consideration is to undo a conundrum—namely, that “liberal democracy abhors the direct involvement of citizens in government.
A worthy study in politics, technology, and the possibilities of remaking democracy in order to save it.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-262-04431-8
Page Count: 176
Publisher: MIT Press
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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