{"product_id":"survival-of-the-richest-escape-fantasies-of-the-tech-billionaires-9780393881066","title":"Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires","description":"\u003cp\u003eFive mysterious billionaires summoned theorist Douglas Rushkoff to a desert resort for a private talk. The topic? How to survive the \"Event\" the societal catastrophe they know is coming. Rushkoff came to understand that these men were under the influence of The Mindset, a Silicon Valley-style certainty that they and their cohort can break the laws of physics, economics, and morality to escape a disaster of their own making--as long as they have enough money and the right technology.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eSurvival of the Richest\u003c\/em\u003e, Rushkoff traces the origins of The Mindset in science and technology through its current expression in missions to Mars, island bunkers, AI futurism, and the metaverse. In a dozen urgent, electrifying chapters, he confronts tech utopianism, the datafication of all human interaction, and the exploitation of that data by corporations. Through fascinating characters--master programmers who want to remake the world from scratch as if redesigning a video game and bankers who return from Burning Man convinced that incentivized capitalism is the solution to environmental disasters--Rushkoff explains why those with the most power to change our current trajectory have no interest in doing so. And he shows how recent forms of anti-mainstream rebellion--QAnon, for example, or meme stocks--reinforce the same destructive order.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis mind-blowing work of social analysis shows us how to transcend the landscape The Mindset created--a world alive with algorithms and intelligences actively rewarding our most selfish tendencies--and rediscover community, mutual aid, and human interdependency. In a thundering conclusion, \u003cem\u003eSurvival of the Richest\u003c\/em\u003e argues that the only way to survive the coming catastrophe is to ensure it doesn't happen in the first place.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"W. W. Norton \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50660917281042,"sku":"9780393881066","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_e1490580-1ad7-4f9b-b198-a7789436cb93.jpg?v=1733479434","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/survival-of-the-richest-escape-fantasies-of-the-tech-billionaires-9780393881066","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}