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Four Futures: Life after Capitalism (Jacobin) Paperback – 1 Nov. 2016

by Peter Frase (Author)

4.3 431 ratings

Part of: Jacobin (13 books)

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"It is easier to imagine the end of the world," the theorist Fredric Jameson has remarked, "than to imagine the end of capitalism." Jacobin Editor Peter Frase argues that technological advancements and environmental threats will inevitably push our society beyond capitalism, and Four Futures imagines just how this might look. Extrapolating possible futures from current changes the world is now experiencing, and drawing upon speculative fictions to illustrate how these futures might be realized, Four Futures examines communism, rentism, socialism, and exterminism-or in other words, the socialisms we may reach if a resurgent Left is successful and the barbarisms we may be consigned to if those movements fail.

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“This book is an exercise in public thinking as a political act, charting courses for movement-builders and citizens. In a project of that sort, a somewhat hysterical dystopia is worth the time of day.” – Jedediah Purdy, Los Angeles Review of Books

“Frase injects a sorely needed dose of reality to the conversation, and the result is invigorating ... I lost sleep over it.” – Ben Tarnoff, Guardian

“Are the robots eating our jobs? Will technology set us free? These questions aren’t new, but Frase’s approach to answering them is refreshingly inventive. Four Futures is a thought-provoking work of political speculation. This incisive little book offers the vital reminder that nothing is set in stone—or silicon—and that in order to fight for a better world we first need to be able to imagine it.” – Astra Taylor, author of The People’s Platform

“An engaging thought experiment on the intersection of technology and the environment. Indeed, as we ponder the interplay between digital abundance and physical scarcity, the digital industrialist solutions of most thinkers in this space pale in comparison to Frase’s more open-minded, less deterministic understanding of the future unfolding before us.” – Douglas Rushkoff, author of Program or Be Programmed and Present Shock

“A remarkably clear-eyed view of the futures we’re facing, bringing humor and intelligence to the lab of speculative fiction to create four smart and sharply lit early warning signals.” – Warren Ellis, author of Gun Machine and Transmetropolitan

“Brexit looms. Trump leers. Populism shouts. Reactionary politics casts long shadows. The right and left tear at themselves and stretch outwards. International tensions simmer. This seems like an appropriate moment for re-envisioning, and contributions to this process are arriving at some pace. Peter Frase's engaging short book Four Futures: Life After capitalism is another addition to this collective reimagining.” – David Beer, OpenDemocracy

Review

“Frase deserves great credit for illuminating the possibilites our politics, technology, and environment now enable and constrain. Simultaneously entertaining and deep, Four Futures should inspire more 'social science fiction.'” – Frank Pasquale, Commonweal

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Verso Books; 0 edition (1 Nov. 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 160 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1781688133
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1781688137
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.93 x 1.27 x 19.74 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 280,127 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 2,260 in Business & Economic History
- 44,618 in Social Sciences (Books)

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4.3 431 ratings

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Customers find the book thought-provoking and a good introduction to some of the ideas. They describe it as interesting, well-written, and accessible with an accessible and jargon-free style.

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6 customers mention ‘Thought provoking’6 positive0 negative

Customers find the book thought-provoking and interesting. They say it provides a good introduction to some ideas and points to interesting trends. The book is a collection of non-fiction essays that connect different perspectives.

"This is a thoughtful piece (set alongside Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism..) with extremely good background reference material pointers...." Read more

"...It points to some interesting trends and takes them to their logical conclusion with the help of some sci-fi authors to illustrate the point...." Read more

"Really excellent thought provoking and very readable book...." Read more

"This is an important book...." Read more

3 customers mention ‘Readable’3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book readable and thought-provoking. They say it's well-written, accessible, and free of jargon.

"Really excellent thought provoking and very readable book...." Read more

"...Brief and well-written. My notes at the back are mostly about how it might be expanded and built on - definitely thought-provoking." Read more

"...The author is clearly well informed, writes with an accessible and jargon free style." Read more

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Jon A. Crowcroft
we can go to hell in a handbasket, or we can make better choices for the future of the planet, and the people that live on it!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 December 2016
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This is a thoughtful piece (set alongside Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism..) with extremely good background reference material pointers. The framing of the ideas as speculative (social science-) fiction is a neat one, though for someone who reads a LOT of SF, it misses some seminal futurism work (e.g. John Christopher wrote a lot of stories about semi-utopic possible futures much as pictured here, back in the 60s, plus Neal Stephenson's work often contains back stories of a similar nature (e.g. the Diamond Age, although most of the SF literature i've seen takes the dystopic alternates presented in this work - Ursula Le Guin's Dispossesed actually has 2 contrasting planets so she can contrast the dystopia with a near utopia which has scarce resource, which is an interesting departure from the scenarios here). That's just a minor whinge, though, as this is clearly written, and is something we all will have to confront in the next couple of decades, as the pace of environmental change picks up and the deployment of mass scale automation (e.g. self driving cars/trucks, smart homes, potentially free at the point of use green electricity, etc) accelerates. Current tired political dogmas of the left an the right are failing to address either of the key challenges discussed here in any meaningful way, so its great to have a clear, and relatively undogmatic dissection of the choices ahead.

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10 people found this helpful

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Dr Tracey Madeley-Jones
Not for the conservative
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 August 2017
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Four futures is a book of non-fiction essays and as the author is keen to point out is not a prediction of the future. It points to some interesting trends and takes them to their logical conclusion with the help of some sci-fi authors to illustrate the point.

The first looks at the rise of robots taking over many jobs and the idea of the citizen’s income, which will free the masses from relying on paid employment. How this will affect individuals view of their worth and meaning and can we adapt to this sort of life is the question this raises?

To sustain capitalism in a world full of robots, other things need to have a price. This is what the author calls rent of licences, which could be applied not only to land, but to the patents and copyright of ideas. The balance of power remains with the capitalist and this Marxist perspective is prominent throughout the book.

The third scenario is about the environment and how we deal with climate change, yet still manage our desire for energy and natural resources. How we manage these scarce resources, who owns them and what we use them for?

The most dark and bleak future is that of extermination. If the poor and low skilled jobs have been replaced by robots then they become superfluous. The rich capitalists seek to remove them with their gated communities and the logical step up from this is extermination.

As the conclusion points out, no one future covers everything and the future is subject to change. In practice the different categories are likely to overlap. We have already seen the rise of robots, digitalisation and automation, along with ghetto’s and gated communities.

The main criticism of this book is that it is short and does not cover the ideas in any depth and this is true, but the book is thought provoking and a good introduction to some of the ideas.

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3 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer
Readable and thought provoking
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 May 2017
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Really excellent thought provoking and very readable book. While I would have liked the last two scenarios to be as explored as the first two I would strongly recommend this book to anyone thinking about the big political choices of our time.

As a writer and user of scenario planning it is fascinating to see it applied at this level of analysis and paint possible futures of playing out trends to their natural conclusion. Sets of scenarios have the power to let us see the connection between different issues and form coalitions which we need in the face of defining trends like climate change and automation.

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B. Sherwood Jones
How to do futurism right
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 January 2017
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This is an important book. On topics such as Universal Basic Income, the future of work, the impact of automation, there are so many examples of really awful single-variable futurism. This book serves as a counter to this, showing how the mix needs to be examined as a whole. Brief and well-written. My notes at the back are mostly about how it might be expanded and built on - definitely thought-provoking.

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3 people found this helpful

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Biogenic
My book of the year.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 December 2016
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I would recommend this book to anyone concerned about the future prospects of society in the light of ecological catastrophe and technological unemployment. It is almost unique in that it approaches these issues from the point of view of class struggle. The author is clearly well informed, writes with an accessible and jargon free style.

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4 people found this helpful

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Sono
Good
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2020
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Good

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Honeybee
Thought provoking
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 January 2018
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Very interesting piece that connects all the different news and perspectives on socialism, politics, and tech. Great to be used as conversation starter.

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Rumbamal
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 February 2017
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Very interesting and potentially useful.

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Top reviews from other countries

Chicago reader
Highly recommend
Reviewed in the United States on 25 August 2017
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I have bought several copies of the book to share with friends and my granddaughter. This is an excellent book which lays out four possible scenarios to contemplate the future. It is a very readable and thoughtful book. The author has a good grasp of Marxism and unlike many Marxists knows how to apply Marxist ideas to the problems we are facing today. The author adds humor and examples from popular culture which makes the book very readable. As the author states, "I hope to reclaim the long left-wing tradition of mixing imaginative speculation with political economy." I think he does this very successfully. The author's idea to decommodify labor and have a universal basic income are compelling ideas for the future.

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Aman
Very good read
Reviewed in India on 30 November 2018
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Peter Frase has done a good job in giving an idea what a future world would look like , with the the current socio economic condition the future seems gloomy for the masses of us working class people while the tiny ruling elite of the world are living under true Communism on the back of other superfluous humans still true of the present scenario. And it's true We have arrived to a future of abundance for the few.

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Thomas Carson
Excellent
Reviewed in Australia on 2 October 2020
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It's excellent.

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.edu
Less than my expectations
Reviewed in Spain on 20 December 2016
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I bought this book with great expectations. Unfortunately it hasn't stand to them. Is not developing that much the theory and possibilities of the 4 possible futures after capitalism, but often strands into something relatively related to it (robots doing all the job? climate change?) and extends longer about it that about the dystopic future itself.

Gives lots of references to popular science fiction like Star Trek, Star Wars... but I wish there was a more serious treatment.

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Robert
Well-constructed thought experiment on possibilities for the future
Reviewed in the United States on 9 November 2021
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Peter Frase has successfully constructed four possible futures that I could imagine coming into existence--and the possibilities he sees range from positively heavenly to downright horrific. The major corrective of the text is to the overt optimism of most "tech-futurist" models, which tend to glamorize technological innovation as though it will automatically lead to a utopia or utopia-adjacent outcome. The futures, presented convincingly as ideal-types (homage to Weber), seem quite plausible and well outlined. Frase presents the book as social science-fiction, and I found it to be a great way to merge the social science approach with the inescapable inexactness of a future-prediction-oriented book. The book is a perfect length to get across his models, leaving room for so many unknowns but sketching out how the world could look depending on the choices we collectively make over the next few decades. I do like that Frase does not sugar-coat the horrors that might await us if we do not take seriously the inflection point we not are living in, and he does not assume that humans cannot be downright horrible to one another and sleep perfectly well.

I would have liked to see more in the text about climate change and the real possibilities that climate change brings; I think the horrific outcome that Frase sees as one of the four futures could emerge more easily than he seems to imagine because the text emphasizes work and automation over the impact of climate shifts. I believe it could easily be the converse reality that we face in the next few decades. I was also expecting, from a sociologist, to see more emphasis on human population dynamics, migration, and food production, which will all be chaotic for the next half-century as climate shifts push every button on the human population control board. There is a focus in the text on labor.

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