Discussing this book in class sent me on a tizzy. I was pushed on my anti-monopolist and free speech arguments. I was almost a little too combative, I think. Read (and discuss) this book if you want to interrogate the assumptions/defaults we have about tech in this day and age.
First book in a trilogy, the premise is fascinating (djinns!). The writing and pacing of plot development is inconsistent, but there’s enough in here for me to stick with the series.
Update: Book 2 is just bad. The writing, character development, and much more. Abandoned it. Such a disappointment.
You know that feeling when you’re working on a topic and you have these ambitious goals in mind, and then you come across a paper which speaks to those questions exactly? Well, that was me with this paper. Reddit, conspiracies, networks: everything I’m trying to do. Sigh. At least I know the paper I’ll be referring to the most when I try to prove my (hopefully) original contribution.
This was… strangely disappointing? I remember being enamored by Subramanian’s work in my development econ days (a former life). But his contorted justifications for things like demonetization didn’t sit right with me.