Back
Nick Bilton: I live in the future and here's how it works (2010, Crown Publishers) 2 stars

Review of "I live in the future and here's how it works" on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

This is a review of the book itself, not anything that the author has said outside of this book.

While this is a book that predicts a number of things that could happen in the future, the author forget about the qr codes they included in every chapter and the future of them. Those qr codes are meant to go to the author's website (which doesn't exist at the time of this review) and the app mentioned at the beginning doesn't exist anymore either.

Some of the things the author talked about has come true in 2022 which is very cool.

"Instead of our relying on professional editors to package a home page or produce a printed page, our online friends are now our de facto editors, providing a supply of news and information that is highly personalized and tailored to our interests. As a result, these relationships are much more than “social.” They are hugely influential."

When reading the footnotes, the links are either cut off (that may be due to my e-reader) or don't exist anymore (as it's been 13 years since some of those links were first published).

The first chapter is on the sex / porn industry, I think it's very bold to start on that chapter and if I were working on that book I would suggest for it to be moved to a later chapter so that readers get invested into the book earlier.

The author does mention what exact street they lived on (at the time of the writing), which I think is very weird and I hope they moved shortly before publishing. They also touch on points related to Christian and "the church" every once in a while which some readers may not like.

Overall it's an interesting book, which some people may laugh at and some may find interesting. It's not a book I would read again and the type of people that would enjoy this book may be very small.

"Fear of the new and fear of the unknown are common afflictions. At their worst, they can stunt or stop innovation. More commonly, though, this technology hypochondria—or technochondria, if you will—rattles a large part of the population, leading to a divide between those who rush forward with new experiences, fearful that they might miss something, and those whose fright leaves them feeling disoriented and left behind."

"what so many of us have trouble grasping—is how difficult it is to foresee exactly what changes a new technology ultimately will bring."