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Barbarius Locked account

Barbarius@outside.ofa.dog

Joined 2 years, 5 months ago

Mostly reading sci-fi, fantasy, and comics/graphic novels, but occasionally some other stuff too.

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Barbarius's books

Currently Reading

2026 Reading Goal

30% complete! Barbarius has read 16 of 52 books.

Heavy, but very interesting

This was a fascinating read. Essentially Varoufakis argues that capitalism is actually over, and that we are now in an era where rent derived from "digital fiefs" is dominant (e.g.: Amazon doesn't produce goods or acquire capital in the tratitional sense, but because no seller can survive without selling on Amazon, it operates like a fief extracting rent from the vassals (sellers) who have no option but to use their site). It's pretty heavy economic theory, but he frames it as a conversation with his late father, and does a good job at simplifying and explaining what he talks about.

Very interesting, and very convincing.

Charlie Jane Anders, Annalee Newitz, Cory Doctorow (Duplicate), Hannu Rajaniemi, Neil Gaiman, Kameron Hurley, Ramez Naam, Madeline Ashby, Lauren Beukes, David Brin, Pat Cadigan, Paolo Bacigalupi, Lewis Shiner, James Patrick Kelly, Rudy Rucker, Charles Yu, Dave Maass, Paul Ford, SL Grey, Eileen Gunn, Charles Human, Carolyn Jewel, Bruce Sterling: Pwning Tomorrow (EBook, 2016, Electronic Frontier Foundation)

As part of EFF’s 25th Anniversary celebrations, we are releasing “Pwning Tomorrow: Stories from the …

Mostly excellent

This free collection of futurism/dystopian fiction was pretty much excellent from start to finish. For the most part, each author/story takes a current issue, idea, or topic (e.g.: copyright law, patent trolls, crowd sourcing, etc.) and extrapolates it into a possible future whereby it was left to go unchecked and how that would possibly look, giving you a Wellesian warning of why these seemingly innocuous issues are important to consider and/or deal with in our present here-and-now. The stories are excellent, and the list of included authors are top-quality!

...and then there's the final story... which has nothing to do with any of the aforementioned issues at all, and is mostly a fantasy erotic romp. It has no futurism, dystopian, or tech themes at all, except that one of the two main characters is a hacker, apparently, and it's mentioned (twice, in a completely unconnected fashion) that he has …

Arnold Lobel: Frog and Toad: The Complete Collection (Hardcover, HarperCollins Children's Books)

Once upon a time there were two good friends, a frog and a toad...

The whole world is covered in buttons, and not one of them is mine!

Frog and Toad: The Complete Collection by  (Frog and Toad) (Page 34)

This is probably the best children's book ever written. And anyone who says otherwise clearly hasn't read it.

Charlie Jane Anders, Annalee Newitz, Cory Doctorow (Duplicate), Hannu Rajaniemi, Neil Gaiman, Kameron Hurley, Ramez Naam, Madeline Ashby, Lauren Beukes, David Brin, Pat Cadigan, Paolo Bacigalupi, Lewis Shiner, James Patrick Kelly, Rudy Rucker, Charles Yu, Dave Maass, Paul Ford, SL Grey, Eileen Gunn, Charles Human, Carolyn Jewel, Bruce Sterling: Pwning Tomorrow (EBook, 2016, Electronic Frontier Foundation)

As part of EFF’s 25th Anniversary celebrations, we are releasing “Pwning Tomorrow: Stories from the …