Down and out in the Magic Kingdom
by Cory Doctorow · first published 2001
35% recommend60% neutral5% critical
Why HN recommends it
Post-scarcity novel with immortality, backed-up minds, and a reputation-based economy (Whuffie). Praised for thought-provoking ideas on social media and the self; suits sci-fi fans curious about alternative economies.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Read Down & Out in the Magic Kingdom online at the Internet Archive. From the Back Cover "He sparkles! He fizzes! He does backflips and breaks the furniture! Science fiction needs Cory Doctorow." --Bruce Sterling, author of The Hacker Crackdown and Distraction On The Skids In The Transhuman Future Jules is a young man barely a century old. He's lived long enough to see the cure for death and the end of scarcity, to learn ten languages and compose three symphonies ... and to realize his boyhood dream of taking up residence in Disney World. Disney World! The gr
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…standards of living. AI might solve the problem, but the consequences of AI are unpredictable (singularity). A few books on the subject worth mentioning, but not mentioned in the essay: Doctorow - Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (fiction, set in a speculative world where the economic system is based on units of social status called whuffies; everyone is born with some, if I recall right (nope, apparently I was wrong, it's not…
on “The Star Trek Economy” ↗On the one hand, this is very spooky. On the other, it seems like it could be a precursor to a social currency similar to the Whuffie[0] in Cory Doctorow's "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom". I remember that reading that book, I couldn't help but feel that, as we move closer to a post-scarcity society, the rise of something like that would be inevitable, and might in some ways be much better…
on “China’s plan to give every citizen a social credit score” ↗I don't know that it's going to happen anytime soon, but I can see exchanges between karma and real currency eventually leading to a reputational economy. See Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. http://craphound.com/down/download.php I wish that pg would start allowing karma transfers here so we could start experimenting and I could cash in all of my stupid points, but that experiment is not…
on “The Dollhouse Mafia, or "Don't Display Negative Karma"” ↗…their consciousness 50 times over, where it is possible to adjust the perception of time, and where plans take millennia to come to fruition. Accelerando by Charles Stross. Recursion by Tony Ballantyne. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow. Yes, these are all evolutions of previous ideas, but Science Fiction has always built on itself.
on “Something Is Broken in Our Science Fiction. Why Can’t We Move Past Cyberpunk?” ↗…Doctorow) -- A fantastic novel about freedom and technology. Makers (Cory Doctorow) -- A great novel about people who create, whether technology or business models. Perhaps the best book I read this year. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (Cory Doctorow) -- The story of a man working in Disney World, which is now part of the Bitchun Society (a post-scarcity, post-death society). A story of love, betrayal, and death; how can you go wrong?…
on “Ask HN: Great books you read in 2009?” ↗The Cory Doctorow book "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" (readable for free online) captures the duality of Disney very well. On one hand, it produces brilliant, creative, high quality work, and makes it accessible to everyone. On the other hand, it's quite…
on “Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams (2007) [video]” ↗…you do? To discount the future is part of human nature. Recommended reading: On the alienness of the immortal human: William Gibson's Count Zero. On the psychology of the immortal human: Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is good. The much shorter, ha-ha-only-serious version is the tale of Wowbagger, the Infinitely Prolonged in Douglas Adams' Life, the Universe, and Everything. (Douglas Adams is one of those guys whose…
on “Futurist Ray Kurzweil Pulls Out All the Stops (and Pills) to Live to Witness the Singularity” ↗…week. Who could say no to a 32 hour week, or even shorter? At some point we may have to switch to an alternative economic system not based on labor (perhaps Cory Doctorow's "Whuffie", and I recommend "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" for anyone interested), but that will be a long time from now and I suspect by then the choices will be more obvious and incremental.
on “Robots and the Future of Unemployment” ↗I wish I had the answers for where to go with this, because there's no doubt in my mind it's the Next Big Thing (TM). That said, I strongly suggest reading Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_and_Out_in_the_Magic_Kingd...), as his Whuffie system seems like a path that needs to be taken, somehow.
on “How to make a mint: The cryptography of anonymous electronic cash” ↗I mean practical scarcity of energy, which would drive us towards a reputational economy. See Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.
on “Obama Gives Keynes His First Real-World Test” ↗Cory Doctorow's "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" was very influential with me. http://craphound.com/down/download.php
on “Grok This: Forget The Business Books, Go Sci-Fi To Stoke Your Imagination” ↗Props to Doctorow's Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom. The other freely available (this one under copyright) great post-singularity work of sci-fi is The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect. http://www.kuro5hin.org/prime-intellect/mopiidx.html
on “Grok This: Forget The Business Books, Go Sci-Fi To Stoke Your Imagination” ↗Something like Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom? It's a transhumanist future with no scarcity and a reputational economy. I am certainly afraid that the corporations will run the world enough that even after (practical scarcity of energy for the average…
on “What does a non-libertarian transhumanist future look like?” ↗Have you read Cory Doctorow's "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom?" I think you'd like it.
I used to think of it in terms of Star Trek until I (recently, thanks to HN :)) read Cory Doctorow's "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" story about Bitchun Society, in which death and energy are not a problem, economy is based on reputation and today's luxuries are theirs basic rights. Interesting book, BTW :).
on “The Mundane Existence” ↗