Tech empires are the prophets of the modern day, and like the ancient oracles and medieval astrologers that preceded them, they're not in it for the common good—they're in it for power. University of Oxford professor Carissa Véliz argues why we must reclaim that power, and shows us how.
Sweeping ... Demonstrates why we would do well to approach most forecasts with the skepticism we now show to prophets ... Ms. Véliz warns that her book straddles genres and defies classification. It is also a little disjointed. Chapters are full of breaks, sometimes connected by clunky transitions but more often with little attempt to stitch the sections together ... These flaws can easily be overlooked because, once the book gets going, its insights, provocations and vivid examples are presented with both passion and clarity of thought. Whether or not it changes how you think about prediction, I cannot say, but I am left convinced that it should.
Witty and surprising ... Lively ... Shows how Big Tech has accrued enormous amounts of wealth and power by promising insight into the future. These modern oracles claim to make us safer, but, she argues, they are doing precisely the opposite ... A book like Prophecy — roving, intelligent, irreducibly idiosyncratic — can expand our sense of possibility, starting now.
A brisk, lively tour of humanity’s long fascination with foretelling ... Stays tightly focused on the nexus of foresight and power, asserting that digital tools are not neutral but are instruments of surveillance ... A sharp, engaging, and often unsettling meditation on humanity’s enduring hunger to know—and control—the future.
