The End of Reality: How Four Billionaires are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto

　　元宇宙、加密貨幣、太空旅行和超人類主義──由四大富豪聯手打造的二十一世紀最大騙局，將如何威脅我們的社會？
 
　　「本書是一記警鐘，警告了當社會過度追捧未將大眾利益放在心上的人們，將會發生什麼事。」──《四騎士主宰的未來》作者史考特‧蓋洛威
 
　　在收入不均、氣候變遷、民主政治危機導致貧富差距擴大，甚至有可能演變成美國內戰的時刻，四位富豪卻大肆宣傳他們所推出的「計畫」，轉移民眾對前述重要議題的注意力。他們所提出的元宇宙、加密貨幣、太空旅行和超人類主義等遠大計畫，在根本上威脅著整個社會的道德、政治，以及經濟。
 
　　《大破壞：Facebook、Google、Amazon制霸，如何引爆全球失衡》作者喬納森‧塔普林，在這部新作中深入分析彼得・提爾、伊隆．馬斯克、馬克・祖克柏與馬克・安德里森等四位富豪的個人背景和文化影響力，並敘述了這四大巨頭對科技的壟斷，是如何造成中產階級薪資停滯、許多美國鄉鎮的人口流失、貧富差距的加劇，以及美國國內對立情緒高漲的問題，與此同時，納稅人的血汗錢卻仍源源不絕注入他們所提出的這些計畫中，讓社會的混亂狀態更加惡化。作者在書中提出嚴厲批評的同時，也給出取代四大巨頭扭曲世界觀的經濟願景，以建立能健全成長、就業狀況更理想的社會為目標。(文/博客來編譯)

　　A brilliant takedown and exposé of the great con job of the twenty-first century—the metaverse, crypto, space travel, transhumanism—being sold by four billionaires (Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Andreesen, Elon Musk), leading to the degeneration and bankruptcy of our society.

　　At a time when the crises of income inequality, climate, and democracy are compounding to create epic wealth disparity and the prospect of a second American civil war, four billionaires are hyping schemes that are designed to divert our attention away from issues that really matter. Each scheme—the metaverse, cryptocurrency, space travel, and transhumanism—is an existential threat in moral, political, and economic terms.

　　In The End of Reality¸ Jonathan Taplin provides perceptive insight into the personal backgrounds and cultural power of these billionaires—Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Marc Andreesen (“The Four”) —and shows how their tech monopolies have brought middle-class wage stagnation, the hollowing out of many American towns, a radical increase in income inequality, and unbounded public acrimony. Meanwhile, the enormous amount of taxpayer money to be funneled into the dystopian ventures of "The Four," the benefits of which will accrue to billionaires, exacerbate these disturbing trends.

　　The End of Reality is both scathing critique and reform agenda that replaces the warped worldview of "The Four" with a vision of regenerative economics that seeks to build a sustainable society with healthy growth and full employment.