en-US Tue, 05 Sep 2023 04:20:29 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review5821172131 Tue, 05 Sep 2023 04:20:29 -0700 /review/show/5821172131 Dave gave 3 stars to The Ministry for the Future (Hardcover) by Kim Stanley Robinson
I kind of feel like I'm just jumping on the bandwagon by reading this. I try to stay away from novels for the most part, usually finding them to be just a waste of time and paper even at their best. Ironically it was the bad reviews warning people about how this isn't a "real novel" that got me to read it. It's true that half of this does feel more like Kim Stanley Robinson's green socialist manifesto than like an actual story. There still is enough pointless crap to technically be considered a novel though, definitely more than I had any interest in, but it basically is just about his own personal political and environmental views. And they're not terrible.

I'm someone that wants to see people transition towards much simpler lifestyles but I do recognize that we currently rely on so much technology that we can't just tear down civilization and expect everyone to settle comfortably into local ecovillages. Ultimately I'd like everyone to live kind of like that, maybe even going all the way "back" to hunter gatherers eventually, but if that does happen it's gonna have to take a long time if we want to avoid catastrophic suffering. This puts me, and others who share this view, in a really awkward position where we're sort of anarchist at heart but generally vote for bigger government because we need the environmental regulations and worker protections that come with it. To escape our dependence on high tech gadgets we may actually need the technological advancements that can automate jobs and make our products more durable and efficient so that less has to be made, and fewer human workers are needed to make them. Tracking wild animals might be needed for us to figure out how to leave them alone. The economy is just so complex that it's impossible to run things without massive data collecting, and artificial intelligence might be what finally makes centralized planning at this scale feasible, although I do find that pretty scary. Same thing with big geoengineering schemes that others are considering, and that are imagined taking place in this book, like spraying aerosols into the atmosphere, dying the ocean a lighter color, sucking carbon out of the air with a shit load of machines, pumping water out from the bottom of glaciers to slow their slide into the oceans, etc.

I can't honestly say I like any of that stuff but things might be bad enough already to make them necessary. My hope has always been that simpler, less risky approaches like using plants to sequester carbon in soil, trees and the ocean would be enough, assuming people cut back on their consumption and had less kids at the same time. Degrowth economics and permaculture are the two things I tend to focus on. It's just getting harder and harder to have hope in that considering that everyone's still screaming about growth, more jobs and rallying behind the most psychotic politicians who've ever lived. Things are likely to get worse for a while and desperate times may call for desperate measures unfortunately.

That's why I can at least respect his attempt at imagining a scenario where all this stuff works out in the end. It's not quite optimistic enough to be naïve. The characters do struggle along the way, and bad things do occur. It's not just a pointless exercise in wishful thinking. There is definitely some value to imaginative sci-fi stories like this. People need to see what it would take for the modern lifestyles they're used to to be sustained, if for no other reason than just to show how unlikely that is. Pretty sure that's not what Kim Stanley Robinson intended when he wrote this but that's what I kept thinking while reading it. If it does get to the point that we really need to rely on such drastic interventions, how likely is that to work out? To me the goal should be using our existing technology to help with a gentle transition towards simpler lifestyles before it's too late, not setting up a system so complex that we're relying on artificial intelligence to take care of us forever. I guess I would say I agree more with his proximate goals than his ultimate ones. Again, that awkward position I'm in of supporting progressive politics while sort of being against "progress." Sorry, I know that confuses most normal people. I just don't see it working out any other way. Maybe that's not the best way to conclude a book review but that's all I've really got to say about this one. ]]> Review4858137753 Wed, 26 Jul 2023 05:55:03 -0700 /review/show/4858137753 Dave gave 4 stars to Kraken Calling: A Novel (Paperback) by Aric McBay
There are a lot of typos, as others have pointed out, and some ideas that might be a little far fetched but Aric McBay is still being more realistic than 99% of other writers trying to imagine what it will take to avoid extinction. I do hope it doesn't play out this way though. ]]> Review5701365697 Tue, 18 Jul 2023 03:19:37 -0700 /review/show/5701365697 Dave gave 5 stars to Take Only Pictures: A Thru-Hiker's Photojournal of the Appalachian Trail (Paperback) by Michael Stroh
Full disclosure, this dude's my oldest brother so giving this less than 5 stars would risk a serious noogie, wedgie, maybe even a dirty sock to the face. But he does deserve it! When he decided to do this hike I remember him reading a big stack of outdoorsy books, trying to prepare himself for the months of discomfort that he knew was coming, and not really being too impressed with any of them. Pretty sure this book is his attempt at making something that he would have wanted to read back then, and that would therefore be helpful to other AT hikers trying to psych themselves up now. I think they'll appreciate it. ]]>