January 24th, 2008
Author: Richard Barbrook
New reviews of Imaginary Futures
Two reviews of Imaginary Futures were published in December 2007:
John Barker’s Up For Grabs in Science as Culture, Number 4, Volume 16, 2007, pages 481-488.
“By giving us the history of intellectuals thriving on an ahistorical view of the world, and what this view leads to, [Barbrook] has given depth to the critique that began with The Californian Ideology, and provided the tools to see through new versions of the same, however attractively packaged. The imaginary future is an area of contestation.”
Bruce Robinson’s The Future Is What It Used to Be in Solidarity & Workers’ Liberty, 3rd December 2007.
“The book tells an important story well. The left should neither forget the history and ideology of the Net in a blaze of techno-enthusiasm, nor simply retreat into “neo-Luddismâ€?. Telling the story of the past of the future is a useful aid to orienting ourselves in the “Information Ageâ€?.”
The utopian dreams of Russian-style cybernetic communism could only be turned into everyday reality within the made-in-the-USA global village.
