By measuring the thing that money really represented–your personal capital with your friends and neighbors–you more accurately gauged your success. Whuffie recaptured the true essence of money: in the old days, if you were broke but respected, you wouldn’t starve contrariwise, if you were rich and hated, no sum could buy you security and peace. However, complicating this is the fact that a new form of currency, one based on reputation, has emerged in this world: it’s called whuffie. In a world in which the struggle for food, shelter, and survival is a thing of the past, Doctorow may be justified in his optimism that people would use their endless lifetimes to make each other happy. Jules’s “adhoc” runs several of the attractions in the park, their only goal being the maximal enjoyment of the park’s visitors. Neither corporations nor governments appear to exist in this world instead, social structure is provided by adhocracies, self-organizing groups of individuals working together to accomplish common goals. The protagonist, Jules, is a “cast member” at Disney World working as part of an adhocracy. Technology has made it so that all of the needs (and most of the wants) of humans are satisfied without cost, so what is left to do? A lot of folks, it turns out, go to Disney World. The future might be dramatically different from the present while still recognizably the same.ĭown and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Cory Doctorow’s debut novel, is an amusing tale of life after the singularity.
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