Really interesting idea, but I think I'm missing (at least from this post) the argument for how speculation foments community. If anything the speculation framework would seem to center conflict: I can't win my bet unless there's a loser on the other side. Whereas I think neoliberal Panglossianism doesn't necessarily need a narrative of conflict, with its rising tides and growing pies.
To that end, it seems you could roughly hew most of the communities you listed into two groups: those that have clear opponents in their speculation(BLM, the Tea Party), and are thus basically doing politics; and those that don't have clear opponents (web3, Musk fanboys) and are thus "being suckers".
I think the really interesting notion, though, is of behemoths like Google and Facebook being participants in this process, rather than just the market makers. If that's the case (and it does feel like a correct observation to me), what's the name of the casino we're all in? Is it just that the world has gotten too complex, we're all circling in a Lorenz attractor now?
thanks so much for this richly insightful review Max! it made me think a lot about the ways you unpick web 3 and Musk - both are themes that I don't address explicitly in the book but I was fascinated to see you discuss through the lens of speculative communities. hoping to get a chance to discuss more sometime in future!
Thanks for the Komporozos-Athanasiou's book review. Looks very interesting. Tim Hwang also made a similar connection with dtech, speculative finace in his book "Subprime Attention Crisis" (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374538651/subprimeattentioncrisis) -- probably a less academic approach.
i wonder how this squares with the notion that recent political/discursive focus on the doom of climate catastrophe has foreclosed many horizons of future possibility - if anything, to many people it seems that climate change is a certain disaster rather than a speculative outcome (although i suppose you can speculate on the extent of the damage)
Really interesting idea, but I think I'm missing (at least from this post) the argument for how speculation foments community. If anything the speculation framework would seem to center conflict: I can't win my bet unless there's a loser on the other side. Whereas I think neoliberal Panglossianism doesn't necessarily need a narrative of conflict, with its rising tides and growing pies.
To that end, it seems you could roughly hew most of the communities you listed into two groups: those that have clear opponents in their speculation(BLM, the Tea Party), and are thus basically doing politics; and those that don't have clear opponents (web3, Musk fanboys) and are thus "being suckers".
I think the really interesting notion, though, is of behemoths like Google and Facebook being participants in this process, rather than just the market makers. If that's the case (and it does feel like a correct observation to me), what's the name of the casino we're all in? Is it just that the world has gotten too complex, we're all circling in a Lorenz attractor now?
thanks so much for this richly insightful review Max! it made me think a lot about the ways you unpick web 3 and Musk - both are themes that I don't address explicitly in the book but I was fascinated to see you discuss through the lens of speculative communities. hoping to get a chance to discuss more sometime in future!
Thanks for the Komporozos-Athanasiou's book review. Looks very interesting. Tim Hwang also made a similar connection with dtech, speculative finace in his book "Subprime Attention Crisis" (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374538651/subprimeattentioncrisis) -- probably a less academic approach.
i wonder how this squares with the notion that recent political/discursive focus on the doom of climate catastrophe has foreclosed many horizons of future possibility - if anything, to many people it seems that climate change is a certain disaster rather than a speculative outcome (although i suppose you can speculate on the extent of the damage)