{"product_id":"the-reverse-centaurs-guide-to-life-after-ai-how-to-think-about-artificial-intelligence-before-its-too-late","title":"The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI: How to Think about Artificial Intelligence--Before It's Too Late","description":"\u003cp\u003eby Cory Doctorow\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMCD\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e6\/23\/2026, paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSKU: 9780374621568\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA short, provocative guide to what's good, bad, and stupid about AI and the discourse around AI, by the author of \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/burningbooks.com\/products\/enshittification-why-everything-suddenly-got-worse-and-what-to-do-about-it\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eEnshittification\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn modern tech parlance, a \u003ci\u003ecentaur \u003c\/i\u003eis a person who is able to use technology to be a better, more productive version of themself. A \u003ci\u003ereverse centaur\u003c\/i\u003e is a person who is forced by technology to work at an inhuman pace--a driver made to deliver all day long, nonstop; a warehouse worker made to work without food or bathroom breaks; a programmer made to crank out impossible amounts of code.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI \u003c\/i\u003eis not another anti-AI screed. Cory Doctorow uses AI in his work every day. As a creative person, he has no moral or dogmatic issue with AI--he thinks the technology is useful, even exciting, and full of potential. And yet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAI has arrived surrounded by unprecedented hype driven by a tech industry desperate to maintain its unprecedented valuation based on its own promises of endless financial growth. Despite the fact that almost all of AI's real-world implementations have proved underwhelming, AI is projected to be worth more than $16 trillion--a number that only makes sense if AI replaces vast swathes of the wage-earning human workforce. To justify that level of \"value,\" every story about AI must be presented as inevitable, world-changing disruption. Even the tales of the robot apocalypse are a calculated attempt to bolster the fearsome power of AI.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor Doctorow, it is imperative to see through that hype to the real story, to understand the technology not just for what it does, but for who it does it to and who it does it for. From that point of view, the story of AI is indeed dramatic and unprecedented, having generated an investment bubble so big that it endangers the entire world economy. In \u003ci\u003eThe Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI\u003c\/i\u003e--as he so successfully did in \u003ci\u003eEnshittification\u003c\/i\u003e--Doctorow recounts both how we found ourselves in this dire situation and how we can get through it, to a life \"after\" AI in which the tools work for us, not the other way around.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReviews:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"[Doctorow] resembles the great rock critics of an earlier era, a high-tech Greil Marcus or even a Lester Bangs. He possesses a useful combination of real knowledge and close observation . . . He is superb, as expected, on the anatomy of Silicon Valley rhetoric and self-aggrandizement . . . He also makes one of the most convincing arguments I have read about what will happen when the A.I. bubble pops.\" --Stephen Marche, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Doctorow speeds through this entertaining primer with his usual vivid analogies, righteous ire and snarky asides . . . [He] isn't animated by the headline-grabbing concerns, whether existential risk or AI psychosis, deepfake porn or election disinformation, because those are unintended consequences. His target is the revenue model and the bubble it has created: 'To be an effective AI critic, you need to strike at the source of AI's power, which is the investment capital it attracts.'\" --Dorian Lynskey, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"There are already a lot of books about AI, with more on the way. Consider this one to be mandatory reading. It's lively, entertaining, angry, wry, passionate, and vastly informative.\" --\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"An eye-opening take on AI . . . A sharply worded, irreverent, and deadly serious call to see through the sleight-of-hand performance of AI promoters.\" --\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eCory Doctorow\u003c\/b\u003e is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, including \u003ci\u003eThe Lost Cause\u003c\/i\u003e, a solarpunk science-fiction novel of hope amidst the climate emergency. His nonfiction book \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/burningbooks.com\/products\/the-internet-con-how-to-seize-the-means-of-computation-1\" class=\"text-link\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e is a Big Tech disassembly manual. Other recent books include \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/burningbooks.com\/products\/enshittification-why-everything-suddenly-got-worse-and-what-to-do-about-it\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eEnshittification\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e; \u003ci\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/burningbooks.com\/products\/red-team-blues-a-martin-hench-novel?variant=45071425896731\" class=\"text-link\"\u003eRed Team Blues\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e, a science fiction crime thriller; \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/burningbooks.com\/products\/chokepoint-capitalism-how-big-tech-and-big-content-captured-creative-labor-markets-and-how-well-win-them-back-1\" class=\"text-link\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eChokepoint Capitalism\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e, nonfiction about monopoly and creative labor markets; the Little Brother series for young adults; \u003ci\u003eIn Real Life\u003c\/i\u003e, a graphic novel; and the picture book \u003ci\u003ePoesy the Monster Slayer\u003c\/i\u003e. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Burning Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52394946003227,"sku":"Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0466\/5121\/files\/9780374621568.jpg?v=1782319601","url":"https:\/\/burningbooks.com\/products\/the-reverse-centaurs-guide-to-life-after-ai-how-to-think-about-artificial-intelligence-before-its-too-late","provider":"Burning Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}