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History Rhymes Badly: A Short Review of More Everything Forever [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-05-29

Should I Read This: Absolutely.

BookShop.org Link (non-affiliate): More Everything Forever a book by Adam Becker

Author’s Website: Dr. Adam Becker

Hey! A book review! Been a while. I must be getting slower in my old age.

I have already written a little bit about More Everything Forever by Adam Becker, but this is the proper review, or what passes for one in these parts. This book is a little bit hard to review because it is so good. In a non-fiction book, that makes discussion a little light. Simply, this book is an excellent look at the intellectual underpinnings of the techno-authoritarianism and how, as the saying goes, history rhymes.

Beck does an excellent job of walking through not only the more outrageous ideas of the modern tech authoritarian — people like Musk, Andreessen, and Thiel — but he shows how those ideas are tied to and build upon early movements, including deeply racist and eugenic movements. Becker traces how various ideas — such as space colonization, artificial intelligence, and the general concept of technological salvation — have their roots in older intellectual traditions, many of which were eugenic, racist, classist or all three. The tech overlords of today very often do not care about the nitty gritty problems of today because they are focused on the problems of the future. And, in part, because they don’t really value every human being as they value themselves. As a result, they push ideas that focus on improbable or impossible future at the expense of more mundane concerns.

The book itself is an enjoyable read. Becker not only makes the connections clear and easy to follow, but the book is also filled with more ideas per page than most books cover in a chapter. Beckers explains in clear and concise terms the entire intellectual edifice that our current age of tech bro dominance is built upon. You will spend one moment thinking about how effective Altruism is a symptom of late stage capitalism and the next wondering what it mean that our tech overlords are focused on the impossible dream of colonizing rather than the quite achievable dream of stopping climate change.

Becker does not just catalogue the moral failings of the tech oligarchy. He also follows the thread of those failings through the darkness, to demonstrate how a morality of care and inclusiveness can counteract the selfish, exclusionary fantasies that drive too many of our ultra wealthy tech owners. Becker does not preach, but his calm and thoughtful logic is hard to dismiss.

This book is worth reading, not only because it will help you better understand the motives of the people driving the plant toward an ugly future but give you a way to fight out of that darkness. Highly recommended.

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