San Diego Liberal Bookworms

Educated:A Memoir
Tara Westover, 2018
302 Pages
Library copies available

In these glory days of MAGA, many a good neighbor proves their dedication to “liberty” and “individualism” through anti-vaxxing and homeschooling. One can’t help but wonder how the kids will turn out. Tara Westover, raised by extremists, isolated from mainstream society, ended up ok, but apparently her tale is rather amazing.

Publisher’s Summary: Educated is a bestselling 2018 memoir by Tara Westover about her journey from a survivalist family in rural Idaho, with no formal education, to earning a PhD from Cambridge University. The book chronicles her struggle to reconcile her desire for knowledge with her family's isolationist and often abusive ideology, detailing her first time in a classroom at age 17 and her subsequent academic achievements. It's a story of resilience, the power of education, and the complex relationship between family and self-discovery, becoming a major cultural phenomenon and a New York Times bestseller.

The Everything War: Amazon's Ruthless Quest to Own the World and Remake Corporate Power
Dana Mattioli, 2024
391 Pages
San Diego City library, 4 copies available, County library, 7 available

Does it seem quaint or pointless to read Amazon critiques these days, with the colossus courier so woven into the household day-to-day? Let us find out. I don't know if you've read the Washington Post under Bezos, but its editorial page is uniformly filled by writers defending dominance and control by the wealthy, or, at least, unapologetically boosting right-wing economic policy--which is the same thing. I don't know if a tycoon publisher's nakedly pro-fat cat op eds have any real influence. But there's no doubt Bezos and his ilk have tremendous power. So let's learn more and discuss Bezos's project,

• Publisher's Summary: With unparalleled access, and having interviewed hundreds of people – from Amazon executives to competitors to small businesses who rely on its marketplace to survive – Mattioli exposes how Amazon was driven by a competitive edge to dominate every industry it entered, bulldozed all who stood in its way, reshaped the retail landscape, transformed how Wall Street evaluates companies, and altered the very nature of the global economy. It has come to control most of online retail, and uses its own sellers’ data to compete with them through Amazon’s own private label brands. Millions of companies and governmental agencies use AWS, paying hefty fees for the service. And, the company has purposefully avoided collecting taxes for years, exploited partners, and even copied competitors—leveraging its power to extract whatever it can, at any cost. It has continued to gain market share in disparate areas, from media to logistics and beyond. Most companies dominate one or two industries; Amazon now leads in several. And all of this was by design.

Code Dependent
Madhumita Murgia, 2024
311 pages
City Library, 3 copies available, County Library, 3 copies available

Did you know something like 45 percent of the stock market is in AI? Did you know, relatedly, AI is driving most of our nation's economic growth lately? I'm not sure what all that means, other than a lot of money and investment is pumping through AI. It may mean there's a terrible bubble bubbling. This book is not about that. But, if AI is all of the sudden the economy, the biggest game in town, let's see what AI means on the ground.

Publisher's Summary

A riveting story of what it means to be human in a world changed by artificial intelligence, revealing the perils and inequities of our growing reliance on automated decision-making On the surface, a British poet, an UberEats courier in Pittsburgh, an Indian doctor, and a Chinese activist in exile have nothing in common. But they are in fact linked by a profound common experience-unexpected encounters with artificial intelligence. In Code Dependent, Murgia shows how automated systems are reshaping our lives all over the world, from technology that marks children as future criminals, to an app that is helping to give diagnoses to a remote tribal community. AI has already infiltrated our day-to-day, through language-generating chatbots like ChatGPT and social media. But it's also affecting us in more insidious ways. It touches everything from our interpersonal relationships, to our kids' education, work, finances, public services, and even our human rights. By highlighting the voices of ordinary people in places far removed from the cozy enclave of Silicon Valley, Code Dependent explores the impact of a set of powerful, flawed, and often-exploitative technologies on individuals, communities, and our wider society. Murgia exposes how AI can strip away our collective and individual sense of agency, and shatter our illusion of free will. The ways in which algorithms and their effects are governed over the coming years will profoundly impact us all. Yet we can't agree on a common path forward. We cannot decide what preferences and morals we want to encode in these entities-or what controls we may want to impose on them. And thus, we are collectively relinquishing our moral authority to machines. In Code Dependent, Murgia not only sheds light on this chilling phenomenon, but also charts a path of resistance. AI is already changing what it means to be human, in ways large and small, and Murgia reveals what could happen if we fail to reclaim our humanity"-- Provided by publisher. mourning during these grief-stricken times.