Monday 21 August 2017

Infomocracy by Malka Older - Book Report #196

The future of politics and elections have evolved.

The people of Earth are no longer represented by elections within their own countries.  Countries as we know them today no longer exist, instead most of the world is divided into ridings of 100,000 people and an independent government is formed to represent them.

The whole planet has one election day to elect all these tiny districts.  It is a giant mess but it is supposed to be a purer way of working with democracy. 

All if this depends on a working and independent internet.  Tasked with keeping the election fair and legal is the corporation that succeeded Google, called Information.

But since this is a book about political elections shenanigans ensue.

The book was well written and I was thankful the author blended the exposition into the narrative of the story.

Sadly, it did not work for me simply because of the subject - politics.  The very thing that I love in fiction are stories about people being people; flawed and self-serving.  It is exactly that quality in humanity that depressed me in this book.

The new system of elections was created to eliminate corruption.  But guess what?  Somebody always finds a way to game the system.  It's one of these stories that made me feel like there is no hope for the future to be much better than today.

If you've ever wondered if there is a better way to govern this book will serve very well as a thought experiment.

I recommend the book even though it was not MY cup of tea.

Malka Older - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malka_Older

Malka Older



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