Bizarre: you gotta change your surname to the occupation of your father at your conception! Welcome to QualityLand, the best country on Earth. Here, a universal ranking system determines the social advantages and career opportunities of every member of society. An automated matchmaking service knows the best partners for everyone and helps with the break up when your ideal match (frequently) changes. And the foolproof algorithms of the biggest, most successful company in the world, TheShop, know what you want before you do and conveniently deliver to your doorstep before you even order it. In QualityCity, Peter Jobless is a machine scrapper who can't quite bring himself to destroy the imperfect machines sent his way, and has become the unwitting leader of a band of robotic misfits hidden in his home and workplace. One day, Peter receives a product from TheShop that he absolutely, positively knows he does not want, and which he decides, at great personal cost, to return. The only problem: doing so means proving the perfect algorithm of TheShop wrong, calling into question the very foundations of QualityLand itself. Qualityland, Marc-Uwe Kling's first book to be translated into English, is a brilliantly clever, illuminating satire in the tradition of Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, and George Orwell that offers a visionary, frightening, and all-too funny glimpse at a near future we may be hurtling toward faster than it's at all comfortable to admit. So why delay any longer? TheShop already knows you're going to love this book. You may as well head to the cash register, crack the covers, and see why that is for yourself. Although Kling is German, his style of humor as it appears in Jamie Searle Romanelli's excellent English translation is right in line with British comedy sensibilities exhibited in the novels of Doug Adams, Terry Pratchett and Jasper Fforde (and a bit of Monty Python to boot). Humor is subjective, true, but I can almost guarantee that if you've enjoyed any of these works, you'll like Qualityland. Perhaps more to the point, Kling has the uncanny ability to analyze Western society's current political and technological trends and predict where their trajectories will lead Fun and Funny: stoner value = High typical in line with me half way thru only to hear HBO is making a series HBO to adapt German satirical novel 'QualityLand' into a TV series | DW | 13.03.2019
a few weeks later and I'm still slowing digesting this tomb of wizdom the spoiler may offer a reason why Amazon indeed GrassCity are so popular Spoiler “A simple cybernetic system is a thermostat. It compares the actual temperature—the actual value—with the desired temperature—the desired value—and regulates the heating if necessary, repeatedly comparing the new actual and desired values, readjusting, and so on. Did you understand that?” “Yes.” “TheShop is also a cybernetic system. A much more complex one, of course.” The old man scratches his head. “Did you know that, in the beginning, it was strictly forbidden to use the internet for commercial purposes?” he asks. “It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it?” “It really is.” “The final restrictions were lifted in 1995, and commerce overtook the net. Nonetheless, we still believed back then that the internet could break the monopoly of the big companies. We thought that a market with countless alternatives would emerge, because with an online shop it was easier than ever to reach customers worldwide. But the exact opposite happened! The most powerful monopolies that have ever existed came into being.” “Despite the internet,” says Peter. “Nonsense,” says the old man. “Because of the internet! It’s called the network effect. And it’s demonic.” “What’s the network effect?” “The use of some products is dependent on the number of product users. Imagine you find a telephone provider that offers you the most reasonable tariff, but unfortunately with one small catch: you can only call people who use the same provider, and you’re the only user.” “I understand.” “Really?” “The more users such a network has, the more useful it is.” “Yes. And once a provider has reached a critical mass of users, it’s extremely difficult for a new competitor to catch up with this usefulness advantage. The network effect is a self-strengthening effect and leads to the creation of monopolies. Or perhaps I should say, to the formation of a dominant platform. Take TheShop, for example: the more customers TheShop has, the more providers are forced to offer their wares with TheShop, which leads to TheShop having even more products on offer, which means more customers find what they’re looking for at TheShop, therefore TheShop gains more customers. This is where the cat bites itself in the tail: because the more customers TheShop has, the more providers are forced to offer their wares with TheShop, and the more…” “Okay,” says Peter. “I get it. The internet is evil.” “Nonsense,” says the old man. “I’m not saying it’s an evil technology. I’m just saying that one has to take its beginnings into consideration. It’s not a coincidence that the so-called cyberspace is increasingly becoming an immense control machine that steers robots, living organisms, and social organizations.” Peter takes a notepad and pen out of his jacket pocket. “Perhaps I should make a few notes,” he says. “Good idea!” says the old man. “Good idea. You know, we thought that the internet would have a democratizing effect. We thought it could generate equality of opportunity. Instead, the income divide is greater than ever. What did we overlook?” “I’m sure you’re about to tell me.” “Correct. We didn’t take into consideration that the digital markets function according to the winner-takes-all principle. That’s different to the nondigital markets.” “An example?” asks Peter. “Let’s say there are two ice-cream parlors on your street. Ice-cream parlor A is a tad better. Where would you go?” “Well, to parlor A.” “But everybody thinks like that. So there’s always a huge queue in front of parlor A. Sometimes they’ve even run out of your favorite flavor before you arrive. And parlor B really is only fractionally less good and not as crowded. Where would you go?” “Parlor B.” “And that’s how the clientele divides itself. Because ice cream can’t be copied and given out to all customers at once. Completely unlike…?” “Digital products,” says Peter. “When you get me to complete your sentences I feel like a stupid schoolboy.” “Rightfully so, rightfully so. Thus, from that we can conclude even if it were only minimally worse, there would be no reason to use the second-best search engine. Winner takes it all. Loser gets nothing. In the digital economy, nobody needs the second-best product, the second-best provider, the second-best social network, the second-best shop, the second-best comedian, the second-best singer. It’s a superstar economy. Long live the superstar, fuck the rest.” after 207 views I hope for your comment? ..lol