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Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (by Cory Doctorow)
"Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" is a science-fiction story playing on the future Earth in Bitchun Society, where money has been abandoned for a reputational concept called "Whuffie" and where people generally live a life completely different than you might imagine (more later). Our main character Jules is a mere 100 years old and works in Disneyland. After he has been murdered, he is pretty upset and starts some heavy freaking out. So much for some basic summary without giving away too much.
The fine thing about Down and Out is how a really good story is transported into a science-fiction context. Neither of the two sides suffers from the other. The story flows naturally, and the author doesn't take elaborate explanations, but rather naturally introduces the reader to the concepts of Bitchun Society. It is a great joy to read the book with occasional laughs, and you will ponder for days afterwards about the effects of progress on human life.
To further spark your interest, let me just give a heads up on some of the concepts presented in the book: Scarcity has been solved by nanotechnology, and nobody is dying of hunger. Whuffie is the quasi-currency in Bitchun Society, and the more reputation you have, the more Whuffie you will get. People are not restrained by bodily weaknesses, and should they die, they will just be re-started in a new body. People have always-on access to something like the Internet to retrieve instant information about their surroundings or people they meet (or to make backups of their brains). Vocal talk is not the only means of communication -- people also subvocalize with each other privately.
One more thing to mention about the book is of course its unique licensing and distribution: Cory Doctorow (who also runs the popular Boing Boing site) has made his book available online for free for everyone to read by invoking a Creative Commons license. A clever PR stunt and an interesting experiment.
In either case, I highly recommend to read "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom", mainly for the amazement and pondering it will ignite inside your head about a totally networked society freed from most physical constraints, but also for the good story.
- Book Title: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
- Book Author: Cory Doctorow
- Buy the book at Amazon.com or Amazon.de, or download it for free here
- My rating:
