Four Futures cover art

Four Futures

Life After Capitalism

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Four Futures

By: Peter Frase
Narrated by: Bob Souer
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Peter Frase argues that increasing automation and a growing scarcity of resources, thanks to climate change, will bring it all tumbling down. In Four Futures, Frase imagines how this postcapitalist world might look, deploying the tools of both social science and speculative fiction to explore what communism, rentism, socialism, and exterminism might actually entail. Could the current rise of real-life robocops usher in a world that resembles Ender's Game? And sure, communism will bring an end to material scarcities and inequalities of wealth - but there's no guarantee that social hierarchies, governed by an economy of "likes", wouldn't rise to take their place.

A whirlwind tour through science fiction, social theory and the new technologies already shaping our lives, Four Futures is a balance sheet of the socialisms we may reach if a resurgent Left is successful - and the barbarisms we may be consigned to if those movements fail.

©2016 Peter Frase (P)2017 Tantor
Anthropology Future Studies Politics & Government Sociology Theory Fiction Utopian
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Fully Automated Luxury Communism cover art
Capital in the Twenty-First Century cover art
The Sublime Object of Ideology cover art
A Brief History of Equality cover art
The Locust and the Bee cover art
Think like a Commoner cover art
Defending the Free Market cover art
If Mayors Ruled the World cover art
Bit by Bit cover art
Peak Everything cover art
Snafu: Perspectives on the 'Accelerated Age' cover art
The Social Singularity cover art
Future Histories cover art
Work Without the Worker cover art
Friendly Fascism cover art
The UnCommunist Manifesto cover art

What listeners say about Four Futures

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    32
  • 4 Stars
    20
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    30
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    28
  • 4 Stars
    14
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

SIMPLY MUST READ (LISTEN)

It doesn't dictate. Presents. Consider carefully. We must each take responsibility. Before we regret it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Neat little read!

A pretty good set of future scenarios based on the axis of scarcity Vs abundance and hierarchy Vs equality. Decent starting point for delving into analysis of the current times and solutions to the crisis of automation and climate change.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A must-read to understand where we may be headed as a species.

A fascinating look into four possible archetype futures that humanity might be on the road to, While this is short, it is also does a good job of giving a brief overview of putting current issues facing the world within some context, while also drawing on science fiction to explore what each of these futures might look like.

This is kind of also a call to action. While it doesn't focus on this, there's a key emphasis that we collectively need to do our part to steer humanity to one of the better futures.

I'd recommend this to everyone, it's accessible and eye-opening. It won't be exhaustive, but vital wakeup call or introduction to the dangerous predicament or apathy that humanity finds itself in.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting But Short

Very interesting book to listen to. At first I thought the performance was a bit off putting as his style is so robotic (something that becomes fairly ironic as you realise some of the books content). In actual fact, the performance was just as clear and easy to follow as the writing style. Would definitely recommend just be aware of the length before buying - it is very short.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

awful narrator

The narrator was terrible - not engaging at all. The book itself wasn't that great either - the concept was brilliant, and the way it was structured was nice (an introduction, four chapters for each of the four futures and then a brief conclusion) but the writing was not great - was lacking in clarity.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful