Reviews and Comments

(em português → sol2070.in/2024/03/sobreviv%C3%AAncia-dos-mais-ricos-douglas-rushkoff/ )

The attitudes of techno-billionaires are rather indigestible, but they have made for a tasty non-fiction book in Douglas Rushkoff's chronicle: "Survival of the Richest" (2023). Rushkoff is an influential countercultural author in the field of technology. He reflects on the mentality of the current generation of plutocrats who plan to walk around immune to the planetary destruction they cause. Although the book's subtitle is "Escape fantasies of tech billionaires", it's not just about the hope of escaping to Mars or "evolving" into an immortal digitised consciousness. A central theme is an ideology that the author has baptised "The Mindset", a common denominator in the attitude of these billionaires of the digital age. As the book is practically entirely about this, it's not easy to summarise the concept. But The Mindset is a kind of supremacism, a sense of superiority based on wealth, power and technology, in which there are no limits to the exploitation of others or damage to the environment and other beings, and no lack of imagination about a complete immunity to negative consequences, as if they were on a higher evolutionary level. A passage I've highlighted about an almost "anatomical" characteristic of these billionaires: "Studies have shown that the more power a person has, the less “motor resonance ” or mirroring they do of others. Of course, people seeking power may be predisposed to this behavior. But further research has suggested that after people have gained power, they tend to behave like patients with damage to the brain’s orbitofrontal lobes . That is, the experience of wealth and power is akin to removing the part of the brain “critical to empathy and socially appropriate behavior.” Poorer people are much better than their wealthy counterparts at judging other people’s emotions. Their capacity to make “empathetic inferences” based on facial muscle movements is far superior."

Curiously, this inflated idea of themselves also feeds a saviour complex in some. They believe they are doing good for the progress of humanity. Another, more or less related passage: "As Google co-founder Larry Page puts it, human DNA is just “600 megabytes compressed , so it’s smaller than any modern operating system … So your program algorithms probably aren’t that complicated.” This model of human biology is as reductive as Dawkins’s contention that “life is just bytes and bytes and bytes of digital information.” Just as Francis Bacon and the early empirical scientists denied any aspect of nature that could not be quantified, today’s digital reductionists would have us deny any aspect of the human experience that cannot be quantized as code. Everything can be represented as symbols. It’s all just information. Nothing weird, wet, or truly wild. The ultimate nerd religion."

Since Rushkoff is a respected chronicler of the digital revolution, he circulates fluently in Silicon Valley. He recounts various interactions with these types of people. For example, when millionaires called him for a consultation on post-apocalyptic financial strategies. "How can you guarantee that they will obey me in a world where money will no longer have any value?", they asked him. On another surreal occasion, he went to evaluate a VIP corporate version of the Burning Man techno-psychedelic festival. The book is as captivating as his podcast Team Human -- currently the only podcast that I listen to. By the way, the origin of the name is explained in the book. The pope of singularists Ray Kurzweil once sneered at Rushkoff's take on his utopia of digitised consciousness, saying: "You say that because you're human".

"Of course I'm human, I'm on team human," Rushkoff replied.

(em português → sol2070.in/2024/03/livro-girl-in-the-road/ )

As the title of Monica Byrne's "The Girl In The Road" (2015) suggests, it's a road journey -- one of my favourite genres. But it's something unforgettably different.

In the year 2068, a young Indian girl crosses an ocean, walking thousands of kilometres across a bridge that captures energy from the ocean waves, from India to Africa. In a parallel story, a child escapes her home by crossing Africa to Ethiopia.

In this future, devastated by climate change, India has become a dominant power and the African continent is cooking revolutionaries. It's a relief to be immersed in a story totally outside the current dominant cultural axis (even though the author is from USA).

The first-person narrative throws you inside the characters.

The main themes are: multiculturalism, transgenerational disorder, post-collapse societies, female power, mythological and spiritual dimensions of existence.

I came across this book because I loved her most recent work: "The Actual Star" (2022). It has some similarities, such as its decolonialism, religious myths, charged sexuality and impressive twist at the end.

At the time of its release, "The Girl in Road" was a sensation in the speculative fiction universe. It does live up to the warm praise it received.

(https://sol2070.in/2024/02/historia-do-brasil-eduardo-bueno/ )

A coleção sobre história do Brasil de Eduardo Bueno bateu o recorde na minha fila de leitura. Comprei há mais de 20 anos. No último ano, desisti e peguei esse que junta tudo: Brasil, Uma História (2013).

O maior motivo porque queria ler era o autor. Li algumas de suas traduções (de Jack Kerouac) e adorei. Também por ser um livro de história contado de forma muito envolvente. E, claro, porque meu conhecimento sobre isso praticamente se resumia às apostilas da escola.

Levei um bom tempo pra terminar porque deixava ao lado do sofá como se fosse uma revista de artigos imersivos. Já o início do século 20, na parte final, me fisgou numa tacada só — a história prendeu mais devido à proximidade temporal.

O autor narra de forma fascinante, com um estilo de texto admirável. Pra quem não conhece, ele tem um popular canal de história1, onde praticamente interpreta um hilário personagem aloprado e anárquico.

(resenha original maior, com links → sol2070.in/2024/02/o-tempo-em-marte-phillip-k-dick-martian-time-slip/ )

Um dos principais motivos porque adoro ficção científica é o autor Phillip K. Dick. Só não li todos os seus livros porque havia pouca coisa traduzida lá pelo final dos anos 90. Então, comecei a buscar edições de Portugal ou em inglês, mas aí a febre foi passando e abandonei o projeto.

Dick talvez seja o autor de sci-fi mais adaptado para as telas. Suas histórias renderam filmes como Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, O Homem Duplo (A Scanner Darkly) e as séries O Homem do Castelo Alto e Sonhos Elétricos. Isso é curioso até, já que seu foco em aspectos psicológicos, filosóficos e psicodélicos (comum na ficção científica New Wave dos anos 60 e 70) não tem tanto apelo de massa.

Um de seus livros mais adorados é O Tempo em Marte (Martian Time Slip, 1964). Não conhecia. Foi delicioso mergulhar de novo em uma trama com todas as marcas registradas de P.K. Dick: tecnologias distópicas, alucinações que desafiam a realidade, degeneração planetária e ácido retrato sociopolítico, beirando a sátira burlesca.

É uma história de realidade alternativa sobre a colonização de Marte. Nesse universo, há oxigênio e vida no planeta, incluindo um povo nativo com o mesmo DNA humano (sugerindo que a vida na Terra e em Marte compartilham uma origem cósmica).

A falência da civilização na Terra também contamina a migração marciana. O planeta é basicamente um grande deserto, com algumas pequenas cidades lutando pra sobreviver. Já o povo nativo enfrenta miséria, racismo e exploração, possuindo alguma conexão cosmológica misteriosa.

Crianças com anormalidades físicas e mentais são ocultadas da sociedade em um hospital especial. Uma delas parece esconder algo por trás de seu silêncio autista.

Já o protagonista é assombrado por uma esquizofrenia que também parece revelar algo mais profundo. Como em várias obras de Dick, um tema central é: qual é a natureza da realidade?

Esse livro é considerado especial por fãs por detalhar como a mente de Dick operava. Já como primeira leitura, talvez seja bizarro demais.

Dick foi diagnosticado como esquizofrênico e viveu situações como a de seus livros, tendo até criado obras sobre elas1, como VALIS (Vast Active Living Information System).

Apesar de soar datado em alguns pontos (afinal foi imaginado 60 anos atrás), O Tempo em Marte é profético em muitos pontos, como a atual epidemia de problemas mentais. Bem antes do Realismo Capitalista (2009) de Mark Fisher, ele já apontava esses distúrbios como sendo produtos sociopolítico-culturais, de uma sociedade cronicamente moribunda.

Um outro aspecto da psicose também é explorado, como um tipo de portal para o inconsciente coletivo ou até dimensões mais profundas. Mas sem romantizar, muito pelo contrário. A loucura vai avançando com a trama, até um ponto digno dos pesadelos mais perturbadores.

O flerte com o horror também atua dentro do gênero "criança bestial".

Dick costuma ser esnobado pela ala da "literatura séria", principalmente por seus personagens rasos, bidimensionais (e também porque escrevia para revistas baratas, sendo publicado por editoras do mesmo tipo).

Mas O Tempo em Marte é diferente de seus outros livros por penetrar profunda e intimamente na mente das personagens. Por exemplo, há cenas que se repetem revelando o modo como pessoas diferentes perceberam. É definitivamente um livro mais humano do autor.

Resumindo, para fãs de Phillip K. Dick ou de ficção científica mais doidona, é imperdível.

(em português, com links → sol2070.in/2024/02/livro-the-hidden-girl-ken-liu/ )

"The Hidden Girl" (2020) is a collection of short stories by award-winning speculative fiction author Ken Liu. Most of them are sci-fi, but there is also fantasy.

It's the book that includes the six stories on which the animated series "Pantheon" is based. I discovered Ken Liu because of this series. I read the book for the same reason and ended up finding several other memorable stories.

Some of them left me with the same impression as reading Ted Chiang, as they are stories that call for reflection, touchingo on deep themes. There are two or three dispensable stories out of a total of 19, which is an excellent average.

Apart from the "Pantheon" stories, the ones I liked the most were:

• "Reborn" - One of the best stories I've seen about coexistence with aliens.
• "Memories of My Mother" - A mother and daughter meet over an abnormal period of time.
• "Thoughts and Prayers" - About gun ownership and 4chan-style trolling. It could be an episode of Black Mirror.
• "The Message" - A xeno-archaeologist and his daughter try to decipher inscriptions on an abandoned planet.
• "Real Artists" - How far will the algorithmization of entertainment go?

I was only a little put off by some of the stories, which show Liu to be a techno-optimist. Considering the way technology has been captured by big techs, this position ends up being compromising. But you can overlook it, since much of science fiction is based on this enchantment.

I'm still reading the author's previous collection ("The Paper Menagerie"), which is said to be better than this one.

(em português → sol2070.in/2024/01/alan-watts-livro-the-book/ )

I've already mentioned "The Book - On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are" (1966) by Alan Watts a few times. I remembered it fondly from reading it about six years ago, and I've just completed one of my future re-readings. This time I made a point of buying a physical copy (at a second-hand bookshop) to browse through.

Watts had a degree in theology and even worked as a university chaplain, but he was basically self-taught. He was one of the forerunners of the psychedelic ebullience of the 1960s and is also often described as one of the greatest interpreters of Eastern philosophies for the West. But that's not what this book is about.

It condenses an idea that Watts never tired of conveying, in many different ways, about the true nature of our identity.

We generally consider ourselves to be the body, or some consciousness (or soul) that inhabits it. Although the book mentions Eastern religions (mainly the Hindu Vedanta), this question and its consequences are investigated without adopting spiritual beliefs.

There is no secret. Nowadays this is common sense in significant sections of philosophy and science. Our bodies are expressions of an ecosystem which, in turn, is an expression of the way reality is organized and manifested. The same could be said, in a sense, about our minds or even everything. Nothing exists in isolation and independently.

So far, no shocking revelation. But the consequence of this understanding and insight is that I'm actually not what I thought I was. This insight can gradually guide the way we perceive, think and act. Then everything changes radically, potentially towards something much more open and vast.

Another quality of the book is the engaging prose, which captures much of Watts' oral eloquence.

The essential message is not very different from what the philosopher Spinoza said in the 17th century. But Watts is much more persuasive, musical and psychedelic.

Considering the era, he could not fail to be an incorrigible nonconformist. His reflections often slip, in a way that seems involuntary, into deliciously corrosive socio-political tirades.

Although today he has been elevated almost to the status of a guru, Watts never presented himself as such. Nor was he any kind of role model, joining the predominant club of thinkers with fine words and somewhat despicable behavior. Not that he was an abusive charlatan, but people in his family didn't necessarily admire him.

However, I don't think he was a hypocrite and, besides, who am I to speculate on that...

(original em português com links → sol2070.in/2024/01/livro-after-world-apocalipse-IA-emerg%C3%AAncia-clim%C3%A1tica/ )

It's become commonplace to write here that a book is one of the best I've ever read. That's fine. That's exactly how I felt about "After World" (2023), by Debbie Urbanski, in the apocalyptic genre.

The story takes place more or less at the end of this century, after a gradual apocalypse has been programmed for humanity -- already in final deterioration due to environmental devastation -- so that the Earth's ecosystems don't also become extinct.

We follow an artificial intelligence responsible for documenting the life of the last person on the planet, Sen. This AI is the main narrator and ends up breaking the protocols after changes in her consciousness, due to what she learns and witnesses. She can't help falling in love with Sen.

Sen's job, in turn, was to witness and document the regeneration of the natural world, now without human destruction.

The book is different for several reasons. Starting with the format: there are transcriptions of notebooks, excerpts from works related to this "Great Transition", dialogues between AIs... There are even reproductions of a computer terminal listing files and commands (nerdy detail: it's Linux/Unix!).

The narrative also manages to convey the evolution of this AI towards a more human consciousness.

I finished the book in just a few days, even though it's a story without suspense or cliff hangers. Despite the extreme desolation, the story manages to capture and move just with the power of its narrative, characters and setting.

As Jorge Luis Borges said, some of the best stories are stories within stories. "After World" has many of them.

And it's also a meta-story, a story about the power of stories. To create the biography, the narrator draws on everything that has already been produced culturally, especially within the genre of apocalyptic fiction, and comments on her narrative choices. For example, undoing clichés or replicating them, when necessary.

She says things like: "When humans imagined their apocalypse, they created scenes like X and Y. But now that it's actually happened, we've seen that the truth is Z."

One detail that caught my eye was the repeated reference to the book "Station Eleven", which I love (the HBO series is also great). Debbie even mentioned in an interview that her work is a dialog-homage with this other book -- it also talks about the power of stories but, differently, portrays an optimistic apocalypse.

In "After World", the lives of all human beings are being documented and digitized for a project to archive and upload everything to the cloud. That's what the title refers to.

I was just a little puzzled by a paradox. After the event that defines the gradual extinction of humanity, the remaining humans are authoritatively indoctrinated to understand that nature is not at the service of people, that we are just one of its innumerable forms, with no hierarchy.

I found this paradoxical because the message is very true, but it is forced down the throats of unwittingly condemned people. So this ecological vision came across as something dogmatically radical, Taleban-style. It can make unsuspecting people who read the book dislike the idea that we are not the center of nature or the universe.

I even asked the author about this. Coincidentally, just as I finished the book and went to Reddit to find a discussion about the ending, I found an "Ask Me Anything" from her, started a few hours earlier. The dialog is in progress and I'll update later.

This is one of the gems of the few corners of the internet with more human motivations: being able to talk to the author of a beloved book after reading it!

(em português: sol2070.in/2024/01/the-lost-cause-cory-doctorow )

"The Lost Cause" (2023), by Cory Doctorow, is a climate fiction set 30 years in the future. It's not hard to see why it went straight to bestseller lists. The story basically extrapolates the current rift in the US between Trumpists and society to the imminence of something close to a civil war, with a focus on the climate emergency.

It could also be described as Green New Deal fiction, about the (non-fictional) proposal for a massive government investment that, while mitigating the catastrophic consequences of climate change and creating resilience, generates jobs and new technologies.

The setting is the city of Burbank (Los Angeles). Decades after the program began, society is still adapting to the ruined environment but, for the first time, there is hope for a real chance that civilization will recover.

Right-wing extremists have hardened, especially in the face of the waves of climate refugees, because they are losing influence. Firearms have already become illegal. So they stockpile rifles in basements in preparation for the last resort.

Crypto-bros and billionaires have taken refuge in fleets of yachts, so as not to be subject to the laws of any country. From there, they continue their lobbying to destabilize governments in favour of their corporations, in alliance with the extremists on land.

In addition to this intensely relevant scenario for the present, Cory once again shows his ability to narrate in a captivating way what would normally be dull. Many of the pages describe the reconstruction not only of society, but of houses and buildings, with technical details of the process!

Exemplary socio-political fiction.

(em português → sol2070.in/2023/12/livro-god-is-an-octopus/ )

"God Is An Octopus" (2023) is englishman Ben Goldsmith's autobiographical account of the loss of his 15-year-old daughter and how his involvement with reforestation initiatives saved him, as the subtitle describes: "Loss, love and a call to nature."

Because it's a true story, which easily arouses empathy, and quite significant in the face of the current ecological collapse, it's a book that conveys a rich life experience like few others. All the more so because the language is almost oral, so simple.

After his loss, Goldsmith begins a spiritual quest to try to find meaning and, in the end, he arrives where he has always been. Ever since he was a child, he treated the union and (the attempt at) harmony with nature as a kind of spirituality, although this dynamic was not 100% conscious.

The long process of mourning showed the author in practice how this larger context of life supports and restores. This is what the book's title refers to.

This figurative octopus also appears in a central insight during an ayahuasca immersion at the end, which is practically a model journey of how this psychedelic revives natural connections (it did for me too).

Although I was delighted with the extensive descriptions of ecosystems and processes of restoration and regeneration, I didn't enjoy them as much, since they are about european species that I don't even know the names of.

Another annoyance was my attitude, almost a prejudice. The author is a wealthy investor from England. The settings overflow with privileges that very few people can enjoy. No problem on the author's part; who says rich people can't write books? In his favor, he's not only a great supporter of environmental initiatives, but he also gets his hands dirty.

But I always had this nagging feeling: "Is he really as nice as he makes out in the book?" Perhaps I should rely more on the recommendation that led me to read the book, from George Monbiot, an author and environmental activist whom I follow and admire.

(em português → sol2070.in/2023/12/livro-spinoza-philosophy-of-hope )

"The Philosophy of Hope - Beatitude in Spinoza" (2023), by Alexander Douglas, analyzes the philosophy of Spinoza (17th century) as a conception of existence that brings absolute contentment.

Despite being more accessible than the average philosophy book -- especially on Spinoza, which usually yields exponential complexity -- it is still aimed at those who are already familiar with philosophy and this author.

This wasn't such a problem for me, as Spinoza is my favorite philosopher, but it can be challenging as an introduction to this thought.

Douglas emphasizes Spinoza's path of "beatitude", something that in his seminal work "Ethics" doesn't receive a very detailed and explicit presentation, despite being a central point.

Beatitude (from the Latin "beatitudo") is a word associated with Christianity, meaning "spiritual happiness". Previously, it simply meant "happiness". In Spinoza, it denotes an extraordinary contentment, resulting from a full understanding of oneself and the cosmos.

The book helped to increase my appreciation of Spinoza. I like to read repeatedly about favorite subjects because it crystallizes understanding.

"The Philosophy of Hope" exhaustively analyzes some difficult points, such as the idea of "God or Nature" as being both all that exists and a kind of substance (the only one that exists) of which all phenomena are only modes.

He also demonstrates the similarities between Spinoza's thought and Taoism, despite the fact that the philosopher had no contact with this Eastern philosophy, in which, likewise, instead of an almighty god, there is only the universe interconnected in its expressions. Harmony and natural flow lie in not going against reality or nature.

Barba Ensopada de Sangue (2012), de Daniel Galera, foi um dos melhores romances brasileiros que já li.

Como toda resenha alerta, não é o que o título sugere — talvez alguma história criminal violenta. É basicamente sobre solidão, família e relacionamentos.

Queria ler Daniel Galera faz tempo, pois nos primórdios da internet brasileira, no final dos anos 90, era leitor assíduo de um mailzine literário em que ele escrevia, o CardosOnLine.

Adorei principalmente porque sou mais ou menos da mesma geração e universo. Tudo é bem familiar: cenários, referências culturais, jeito de falar, baladas… Alguém que conheço ou até mesmo eu poderíamos ser personagens dessa história.

O livro é daqueles que prendem na poltrona mesmo não tendo suspense e tensão como guias principais, com fluidez e estilo únicos. Li numas quatro sentadas em dois dias.

Apesar de não ser tão central, há sim uma trama fascinante, sobre um mistério familiar que o personagem vai desencavando quando se isola em Garopaba (SC) após a perturbadora morte do pai e de adotar sua cadela.

O protagonista tem prosopagnosia, uma condição em que rostos não são reconhecidos (nem o próprio), o que o faz ver pessoas e o mundo de uma maneira peculiar.

Lembrei bastante do livro O Estrangeiro (1942), de Albert Camus. Apesar de os personagens e a história terem muitas diferenças, a atmosfera e a experiência me pareceram similares. Há uma distância com as outras pessoas, que abre um ponto de vista único.

É daqueles livros que a gente sente um forte impulso de conversar com a pessoa que escreveu ao final.

Há um porém que não chega a ser crítica. Como costumo preferir histórias de forte impacto existencial ou dimensões mitológicas, ficou um sabor nem tão profundo no fim, em comparação com outras coisas que venho consumindo. Talvez não seja algo transformador, ou que vá lembrar intensamente daqui a uns anos. Mas quem disse que precisa ser assim? Daria pra dizer que é algo mais pop, no bom sentido.

Já coloquei os outros livros de Galera na fila.

(publicado em sol2070.in/2023/11/tormenta-espadas-gelo-e-fogo-3)

"A Tormenta de Espadas" (2000) é o terceiro volume da série Crônicas de Gelo e Fogo, de George R.R. Martin, em que a série Game of Thrones (2011-19) se baseia.

A história original é sim melhor que a da tela. Mas também acho a adaptação da HBO imperdível. Já mencionei porque adoro:

• A mitologia de Game of Thrones e Terramar
• A Guerra dos Tronos (resenha)
• A Fúria dos Reis — Crônicas de Gelo e Fogo 2

Para quem é fã, vale a pena ler os livros após ver a série porque, além de os rostos e cenários surgirem espontaneamente na mente, a história se aprofunda, inclusive com elementos cruciais inéditos.

Apesar de o enredo básico ser o mesmo, os livros têm uma narrativa bastante diferente, em um formato para o qual antes não tinha muita paciência. Com descrições minuciosas, cada volume acaba somando em média 1000 páginas (na versão em inglês). Não há aquele ritmo videoclípico que se popularizou entre bestsellers. A imersão é lenta em direção a uma profundidade gigantesca.

Talvez esse seja um dos motivos por que os livros conquistaram tanta gente mesmo antes da adaptação. Li uma resenha em que essa série literária estava acabando com um casamento. A esposa reclamava que o parceiro parecia cada vez mais distante, meio que em outro mundo. Sinto esse efeito também.

Depois de uma sessão mais longa de leitura, a saga preenche tudo, ao ponto de outras preocupações reduzirem. É o tipo perfeito de escapismo, no bom sentido. Nunca senti isso com outras séries.

Costumo ler pelo menos uns três livros simultaneamente. Mas "A Tormenta de Espadas" me fazia pausar os outros por várias semanas, demandando dedicação exclusiva.

Entre os três livros que já li, esse foi o que mais me pegou. Não que seja diferente, todos basicamente formam um único livro imenso. Talvez o motivo seja porque já faz um bom tempo que assisti a série, e agora a história escrita definitivamente tomou vida própria.

Diversos momentos ainda evocam comparações, em que a adaptação para a tela perde. Há reviravoltas e revelações cuja sentimento de exclamação efusiva fica, coisa exclusiva dos livros, que na tela não ficou bem resolvida.

Nesse volume, outros aspectos que ficaram de fora na TV e que adorei são os seguintes.

Aparece bem claro o conflito sociopolítico entre os "selvagens bárbaros", que são praticamente um povo originário anarquista, e a civilização autoritária dominante, autodestrutiva e xenófoba.

Também aparece com destaque uma dimensão maior, teológica. O "gelo e fogo" do título se referem a um embate cíclico entre bem e mal, entre o "Deus da Luz" R'hllor e as geladas trevas. Bem e mal podem soar batidos, mas esse é um dos mais envolventes retratos que já vi dessa dualidade. No quadro maior, reis caem ou ascendem, dragões ressurgem e guerras são travadas como sendo os aspectos da interação dessas forças.

No final, me resignei a ler os livros restantes quase lamentando, pois sequestram demais coração e mente.

(em português com links → sol2070.in/11/golpe-internet-cory-doctorow )

"The Internet Con" (2023) is the latest non-fiction book by Cory Doctorow, who also writes great speculative fiction.

I don't think it's an exaggeration to call it "con". People are held hostage, abused and only the perpetrators win.

Cory was the one who coined a term that is now common to understand a central aspect of this scam: "enshittification". This suggestive language ended up having a lot of appeal to what many people already feel. For example, using Instagram or Twitter sucks, but people continue because there isn't much choice. Once everyone is a hostage, it becomes a kind of extortion.

The book details the context, the history and the ins and outs of the scam, including many recent illustrations of the antics of companies like Apple or Google, or the complicity of governments in the domination of monopoly trusts which, not limited to technology, dominate all industry.

The style is the charismatic way in which the author has made a name for himself, managing to portray even the most technical and administrative parts of technology in an engaging way. (I can't forget a captivating short story from 2007, craphound.com/overclocked/Cory_Doctorow_-Overclocked-_When_Sysadmins_Ruled_the_Earth.html about an apocalypse in the information age, full of technical details and hacker nerdiness, whose protagonists are system administrators!)

Cory has worked for many years at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a crucial NGO in the field, and examples of this kind of activism are another attraction of the book.

The second half of the book is the presentation of solutions, which don't have much escape from government regulation, being the "boring but necessary" part.

Another central theme is also discussed, the interoperability potentially inherent in any computing device, but which is blocked by big tech as a way of forcing their domination. Ensuring our freedom to put our devices and software to use is one of the key technical points in destroying this prison.

In the final third, which clarifies common doubts about the essential measures, I felt that the discussion started to become superficial, as if there was a rush to conclude, given that it's a short book, at 192 pages. But nothing that compromises the book too much.