Books/Walkaway

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Genre: Science fiction
Author: Cory Doctorow
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkaway_(Doctorow_novel)

Currently reading, review not ready

Front Cover

This book is dedicated to Aaron Swartz, someone who was already living in a post-scarcity world in his head. TODO Who's the other dude?


The first chapter is a bit overwhelming and too much to take in, which is a good indication that the author is good at creating imaginary worlds.


Walkaway's world is one of post-scarcity technology and worse than feudal society. The `default` world is one of cyberpunk dystopia while the Walkaway lands are one of post-scarcity cyberpunk anarchist utopia.


The author invents a lot of new words without writing a paragraph-long explanation of what it means, which is what you typically expect from sci-fi novels written for the general public. Walkaway's approach is learning by immersion. You live in the Walkaway world to learn about it.


The Walkaway philosophy is a hard one to follow. It's one of non-violence and non-attachment. You're not permitted to be a hero or a special snowflake. It rejects meritocracy. It embraces the Gandhian values of simple living and high thinking.


The modus operandi of Walkaway society looks almost like FOSS communities and there are a few good takeaways too.


I'm two chapters in and feel like I've read an entire novel. It's quite dense.