In modern tech parlance, a centaur is a person who uses technology to be a better, more productive version of themself; a reverse centaur, then, is a person forced by technology to work at an inhuman pace. These stories are all too familiar: drivers made to deliver all day long; warehouse workers forced to work without bathroom breaks; and now, knowledge workers asked for impossible productivity under the mirage of AI efficiency. In The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI, Cory Doctorow—the bestselling author of Enshittification and The Internet Con—deftly pops the AI bubble, recounting how we found ourselves in this dire situation and how we can advance to a place where the tools work for us, instead of the other way around. Moderated by David Beers.
Presented in partnership with Raincoast Books.
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DAVID BEERS is founding editor and current editor-in-chief of The Tyee. He is co-editor of the BC bestseller Points of Interest, a collection of stories about British Columbia published since 2003 in The Tyee. He is an award-winning magazine writer, author of a highly praised book Blue Sky Dream: A Memoir of America's Fall from Grace, and was a senior editor at Mother Jones, The San Francisco Examiner and the Vancouver Sun.
CORY DOCTOROW is a science fiction author, activist, and journalist. He is the author of many books. He writes nonfiction policy books such as The Internet Con and Chokepoint Capitalism, as well as science fiction for adults – Red Team Blues and The Lost Cause – and for young adults – Little Brother. He has been inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame and has been honored with the Arthur C. Clarke Imagination in Service to Society Award and the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity. He was made an honorary Doctor of Laws by York University and an Honorary Doctor of Computer Science by the Open University. For a quarter century, he has been an activist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He co-founded the UK Open Rights Group and holds visiting appointments at the Open University, MIT, Cornell, and the University of North Carolina. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in Burbank, California and London.
