Survival of the Richest

Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires

By: Douglas Rushkoff

Narrated by: Douglas Rushkoff

In Survival of the Richest, Rushkoff traces the origins of The Mindset in science and technology through its current expression in missions to Mars, island bunkers, AI futurism, and the metaverse. In a dozen urgent, electrifying chapters, he confronts tech utopianism, the datafication of all human interaction, and the exploitation of that data by corporations. Through fascinating characters—master programmers who want to remake the world from scratch as if redesigning a video game and bankers who return from Burning Man convinced that incentivized capitalism is the solution to environmental disasters—Rushkoff explains why those with the most power to change our current trajectory have no interest in doing so. And he shows how recent forms of anti-mainstream rebellion—QAnon, for example, or meme stocks—reinforce the same destructive order.

This mind-blowing work of social analysis shows us how to transcend the landscape The Mindset created—a world alive with algorithms and intelligences actively rewarding our most selfish tendencies—and rediscover community, mutual aid, and human interdependency. In a thundering conclusion, Survival of the Richest argues that the only way to survive the coming catastrophe is to ensure it doesn’t happen in the first place.

©2022 Douglas Rushkoff (P)2022 Recorded Books

A Burning Criticism of Capitalism

Rushkoff leverages his insider knowledge to apply Marxist theory to current issues. If you're looking for a detailed list of all the reasons to regard those who lead and benefit from our growth dependent, broken system with contempt, you've found it (for better or worse).

A Reasonable Analysis

I liked this book a lot, and I must confess it frequently challenged, and occasionally supported my own personal orthodoxy. That said, the book suffers from the author’s personal orthodoxy as well. Where some of his challenges were in fact legitimate, he frequently delegitimized his own argument by tying it too closely to his own political perspective. As with all political perspectives, his are flawed and built upon political propaganda - essentially Progressive Democrats GOOD, everyone else? WRONG Too bad too, since much of the book could have been apolitical, and been a better read.

It’s what expected and more

this book is truly well written and researched. It will give you a whole perspective on what the highest sphere of society really thinks of the rest of the people and themselves through their endeavors.

Amazing

A must read for all! Entertaining and informative. I wish everyone would follow his advice.

Rushkoff overview worth reviewing, but not new

If you're familiar with Douglas Rushkoff (and I'd recommend the Team Human podcast very much), there isn't a lot of new information in his latest book. The main thing, as some recent headlines have shown, is the story of meeting tech billionaires who hope to survive the end of the world. Otherwise, this is a good summary of technology critiques from this important social writer.

There's also the chapter on Burning Man, showing how giving capitalists psychedelics doesn't really improve anything in the world when they can't escape the fundamentalist of their mindset. The part on Q-Anon and internet addiction is also very poignant. But overall, I'd recommend other of Rushkoff's older books. He's an important thinker, and I hope the world will further pay attention and think harder about what's not working in society. With a focus on humanity, perhaps we can do better.

5 stars

Worth the read. Compelling thoughts and stories…nothing of a surprise if you have any soul about you, but great context for conversations with others. Recommend reading it. And then choosing how to live now. There’s no “coming future” to save us.

Oh, and a surprisingly great inspiration to consume less!

Interesting point of view but oversimplifies tech and growth

A friend recommended this audiobook to me. I liked some of the insights into the kooky plans of billionaires and his critique of the “mindset” as the author dubs the thinking behind todays growth at any costs mentality.

However, where the author lost me is on his misunderstanding of ideas like those found in the “The Selfish Gene” and his efforts to tar Dawkins as some sort of amoral atheist for being associated with Jeffrey Epstein. This is an old trick and a nasty one. Discredit by association the people with whose ideas you disagree. I’m sure the author is in a ton of pictures with some unsavory people. What should we make of his ideas then?

And speaking of his ideas, early on in the book I got the feeling the author has a Marxist ideology that he was hell bent on proving to us is the right way and it seemed he was cherry picking stories, over simplifying motives, throwing around studies without footnotes, and ignoring one of the main tenants of human nature: the benefit of competition on a human scale to bring success to the species as a whole.

Listen, the author is right about some of the horrible business practices, unfair taxation, and harmful ways we treat our environment. But his “mindset”, let’s call it “new age marxism” ignores the benefits of capitalism and its ability to lift millions of people out of poverty.

Wild ride

Eye opening and informative. Could be thought of as fiction but sadly it’s real, which is scary. I enjoyed this read and it gave me much to think about. I went in thinking that rich people had all the answers and the book has convinced me that they seem to have less answers.

I’m glad someone said it.

A wonderful summation of Rushkoff’s previous perspectives on runaway tech culture brought to a timely and important subject matter.

A must read for everyone

loved every bit of this jook, except of course the mindset 9f the super wealthy and the reluctance they and most of society have to seeing reality and actually changing anything. since I'm using a platform that perpetuates the problem let's use it to spread awareness of it. buy every book Douglas and other of similar mind writes and share them with others.