A Celebration Society

Category: Reviews

Reviews of the book, A Celebration Society

  • Review: Thoughtful and Detailed Solution

    Review: Thoughtful and Detailed Solution

    With his book A Celebration Society, Jonathan Kolber has not only produced a far reaching elucidation of many of today’s (and more importantly, tomorrow’s) global problems, but he has also done that rare and difficult thing – provided a thoughtful and detailed solution to them.  Too often, we do things because that’s how we’ve always done them, without necessarily thinking of a better way.

    As a species, our duty should be to concentrate on a method to sustainably maximize happiness and mitigate misery for every person on the planet.  The coming economic disruption that will be caused by automation and robotics in the next few decades will create enormous social upheaval – and whether that effect is negative or positive depends on how many people will seriously embrace the principles in this book.

    If readers perceive the narrative of this book to be too far-fetched, then I suspect we will not be able to avoid the coming negative upheaval.  If, on the other hand, people approach these ideas with an open and clear mind, I have faith for the future.  Thanks are due to Jonathan for focusing this conversation in such a detailed way.

    Not everyone will agree with all of the details of this conversation, but I hope we can agree that we need a book like this to start this conversation.

    ~Alexander R. Bandar, Ph.D., Founder/CEO of the Columbus Idea Foundry, the world’s largest and most active community workshop

  • Review: A Rare Treat

    Review: A Rare Treat

    Here’s a review from Todd William:

    “The world of technology is becoming increasingly more exciting with every new advancement, yet one aspect that many consider troubling is the notion that ever more jobs are being replaced by machines. This is not a new phenomena, as we’ve seen such shifts occur in the past. The agricultural industry once employed over 80% of the western population – that number being reduced to less than 5% today. Thus we are left asking, will technology create more jobs than it destroys, or are we doomed to live in a jobless world?

    In his book, A Celebration Society, Jonathan Kolber tackles this question head on. He deals directly with the ramifications of many professions vanishing, and addresses the question of how a society can operate without individual economic growth as a goal – the answers to which may surprise you. He has taken on the task of developing a workable societal system, where scarcity is not only removed but human quality of life improves in staggering ways. Kolber accomplishes this with an exceptional level of investigation and historical perspective.

    If ever there was a book that came close to sufficiently collecting all the most intelligent ideas and thoughts on potential consequences of future technology, Kolber has achieved it with A Celebration Society. He addresses a wide away of topics ranging from government, education, energy, ethics, access to life’s essentials, lacking only a discussion on issues of private property. It is a rare treat to find a book with an intriguing subject, an engrossing writer, and a well researched topic. In A Celebration Society, we have all three.”

    ~Todd William (www.the-thought-spot.com)

  • Review: Misgivings Addressed and Answered

    Review: Misgivings Addressed and Answered

    The research and writing of this book has obviously been a massive undertaking. Not so obviously, it is incredibly up to date with current technological advances.

    I started to read it as just another attempt at idealizing a Utopian Society. I had all the usual misgivings about his glossing over of inconvenient truths, or leaving gaping holes in his logic or reasoning. However, the further I read, the more my misgivings were addressed and answered convincingly. I sometimes felt that his elaborations were overlong and had a tendency to slightly drift off topic, but he always managed to bring them back in time!

    I did feel that his criticism of the FDA, while thoroughly justified, didn’t really add to his thesis, and the book wouldn’t suffer if it were to be omitted. If I have one real niggle it is, from my personal perspective, that once again the environment is a minor bystander to human cleverness. The two outstanding aspects of the book were the Charter of a Celebration Society, and the revelations of his and Jennifer’s personal anecdotes which provided that human touch.

    I can’t tell you how much I admire you for producing this gem and wish you a profound reception and success in promoting these wonderful ideas.

     

    ~Steve Friedman, retired geology teacher