The End of Reality

How Four Billionaires Are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto

By: Jonathan Taplin

Narrated by: Jason Culp

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.

©2023 Jonathan Taplin (P)2023 PublicAffairs

Critic reviews

“I've followed technology, and politics, for decades. But I found a tremendous amount of new information and insight in 'The End of Reality.' Anyone interested in where culture is headed, and how democracy can survive, will want to read this book.”—James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic and author of Breaking the News

"Once again, Jonathan Taplin has cut to the core of a heartless techno-oligarchy. If names like Musk, Thiel, and Zuckerberg only cause you distress, Taplin's careful exposé will move you to outrage, though with hope that the hyper-barons can be curbed.”—Sean Wilentz, author of The Rise of American Democracy

Once again, Taplin has cut to the core of a heartless techno-oligarchy. If names like Musk, Thiel, and Zuckerberg only cause you distress, Taplin’s careful exposé will move you to outrage, though with hope the hyper-barons can be curbed.”—Sean Wilentz, George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History, Princeton University

I should have read it sooner

This book does a lot to explain the world that we are living in in America in 2024. It provides the motivation of why these guys work so hard to get Donald Trump reelected and what they are set to gain in his second administration.

End of Reality

Exceptional and terrific. Book ends with Move Fast and Break Things. Maybe a 3rd coming soon for a trilogy?

Essential & timely!

An vital overview of our current crisis and how to change our trajectory from the path of technocratic nihilism to a world in which we all thrive.

Amazing work!!

Just listen to his points and truly see what’s going on around you. Why is the media accepting fascism??? Why are these people allowed to control and benefit from our taxes??? Tell yourself is mars colonization a reality??? We can barely build new communities here having the materials at our disposal. Don’t be a sheep and think for yourself stop accepting an “alternative” reality that won’t do anything for you, this is our world right here and Mars or AI won’t pay your bills and put food on YOUR families table.

Insightful

Taplin’s insightful description of Musk, Thiel, Zuckerberg & Andreessen and their technologies demystifies their projects’ value to society. I’ll never again see them the same way.

Oustanding

Taplin’s interesting background along with his strong research made the book fascinating and worthwhile. The power and corruption of the technocrats needs to be understood and pushed back.

A must read....

I have no idea why this book has so few reviewers, it's absolutely eye-opening how big money controls the world today and will completely dominate in the future if there is not a course correction

Eye-Opening and Thought-Provoking

Jonathan Taplin, a former professor of innovation at USC, does a great job creating a framework in which to understand the alliance formed by the Technocratic elite and the Republican party. Prior to reading this book, I understood that Peter Thiel was a fascist and dangerous; now I see it clearly. Similarly, the author explains how Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and selling of the expensive folly of colonizing Mars are both part of the same program — the ending of subjective reality and its replacement with a Technocratic “metaverse” in which they, the overlords, are the masters.

A left leaning conspiracy theorist yelling about right leaning conspiracy theorists.

The author identifies real problems created by the miss management of our current situation. Where it breaks down is he sees the source as individuals who sit on a political spectrum. Ultimately making a plea for his preferred failed political ideas over the other teams failed political ideas. As an example , lots of time is rightly given to the closeness of his 4 villains to the Republican Party leading to the 2016 election. What is lacking is the acknowledgment that the Democratic Party had their own technocrats from the same companies like former leaders of Google in similar places. The books misses the issue is total capture and the need for a revolution in thinking rather than the return to tired political ideas he prefers.

This books is the same as advocating MSMBC is the solution to Fox News.

Very biased

The author makes some interesting points, but his left wing bias shines throughout - droning on and on about the “authoritarian right” while ignoring the authoritarian left and the damage it has done. He conveniently leaves out that the big tech companies and the Democrats have been in bed together since the rise of social media etc, ironically ignoring that reality. I would have preferred a more balanced look at things.