Future Histories: What Ada Lovelace, Tom Paine, and the Paris Commune Can Teach Us About Digital Technology

I have no idea why I bought this book. Honestly, I don’t even remember buying it.

The book is a … call (?) to a new future. I think the title refers to events in the past that resemble current events, or how our future should turn out. I know that sounds confusing.

However, I can’t categorize the book other than a manifesto for how the world SHOULD be, according to the author. It’s very much a call to socialism, or at least a more socialistic society than the one we have now. The author is very concerned with issues of social justices, and she advocates for things like Universal Basic Income, Sovereign Wealth Funds, and other structures that involve placing wealth in the hands of a governing authority for a more equal distribution.

I’m not in agreement with everything she writes (less than half, probably), but it’s still an entertaining book. Each chapter is interesting, she’s a good writer, and she does a nice job of talking about past events and linking them to both current events, and the future as she sees it playing out.