What we’re about
This book club is for people who enjoy reading non-fiction! Let's have fun reading and discussing informative, thought provoking books.
Our goal is to bring like minded individuals together who enjoy learning more about the world and would like to socialize over a good book.
Titles to span diverse subjects like economics, current events, politics, history, science, self-help, biographies, travelogues and memoirs. If it's non- fiction, it qualifies!
We'll meet at restaurants, wine bars, or casual dining spots mostly inside the Loop. New selections for future Meetups are selected at the end of each Meetup. They are based on member suggestions and chosen by popular vote. That means if you want to see a book you love as a featured selection, you need to be present at a Meetup!
Upcoming events
2
More Everything Forever: AI Overlords & Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control
Fratelli's Ristorante, 1330 Wirt Rd Ste D, Houston, TX, USThis "smart and wonderfully readable" (New York Times) exposé shows why Silicon Valley’s heartless, baseless, and foolish obsessions—with escaping death, building AI tyrants, and creating limitless growth—are about oligarchic power, not preparing for the future
Tech billionaires have decided that they should determine our futures for us. According to Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, and more, the only good future for humanity is one powered by technology: trillions of humans living in space, functionally immortal, served by super intelligent AIs.
In More Everything Forever, science journalist Adam Becker investigates these wildly implausible and often profoundly immoral visions of tomorrow—and shows why, in reality, there is no good evidence that they will, or should, come to pass. Nevertheless, these obsessions fuel fears that overwhelm reason—for example, that a rogue AI will exterminate humanity—at the expense of essential work on solving crucial problems like climate change. What’s more, these futuristic visions cloak a hunger for power under dreams of space colonies and digital immortality. The giants of Silicon Valley claim that their ideas are based on science, but the reality is darker: they come from a jumbled mix of shallow futurism and racist pseudoscience.
More Everything Forever exposes the powerful and sinister ideas that dominate Silicon Valley, challenging us to see how foolish, and dangerous, these visions of the future are.
To learn more or make an Amazon purchase, go to: More Everything Forever12 attendees
Fight Oligarchy
Fratellis Ristorante, 1330 Wirt Road, Houston, TX, US“Oligarchy is a system in which a small number of extremely wealthy individuals control the economic, political, and media life of a nation. It is a system in which ordinary people have very little power to determine the future of their country. If you’re an American, it is the system in which you’re living. That must change. In the wealthiest nation on earth we must build a political movement that creates a government that represents all Americans, not just a handful of billionaires.”
—Bernie Sanders
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Senator Bernie Sanders breaks down the unprecedented crises we face today in Trump’s America, as Trump undermines democracy at every turn—and how we can effectively fight back.
From the moment that Sanders began his Fighting Oligarchy tour in the early days of the Trump administration, it was clear that his message resonated with Americans across the political spectrum. Record-breaking crowds numbering in the tens of thousands showed up across the country. Large numbers of Americans, in red states and blue states, were prepared to stand up and fight back. In this book, he shows how we can continue that fight.
In a series of short, pointed chapters, Sanders explains how the United States today is an oligarchic society in which a small handful of multibillionaires exercise enormous economic and political power. He describes what it means when the very rich get much richer, while the majority of Americans struggle to pay the rent and put food on the table. And he observes how a corrupt campaign finance system allows billionaires in both parties to increasingly control our political system.
Sanders also discusses how, under Trump, we are rapidly moving toward authoritarianism–with a president who is undermining our democracy as he attacks Congress, the courts, the media, and law firms and universities in search of more and more power for himself. With relentless optimism and focused energy, Sanders reminds readers that true power rests with the people—and he presents a path forward to a reinvigorated democracy.
To learn more or make an Amazon purchase, go to: Fight Oligarchy13 attendees
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