2021, book 11: Speed tribes: days and nights with Japan's next generation, Karl Taro Greenfeld

The frustration with this book is that there is no sourcing whatsoever. Clearly some of the details, like verbatim conversations, are invented after the fact, but are these short vignettes based on actual events or are they merely meant to describe things in generalities?

The last chapter contains some idiotic drivel about Japan's acceptance of computers and how the history of the country blahblahblah. It reads like something a first year grad student in sociology could have vomited during a particularly boisterous night of self-imporant discussion. It's also hilariously dated, attempting to find a historical and philosophical reason for Japan's acceptance of modern (computer) tech and contrasting it with the US, where, apparently, people don't see a computer as "just another object" because of their strong Judeo-Christian ethics. I wish I were making this shit up...but, no, the author did it for me.

In short: shut up, Karl. Stick to the little stories and don't try to find links between "a society in symbiosis with the machine," "Japan is a moral donut you can fill with whatever pleases your fancy," and "particle physics put through a Tao of Physics food processor." (WTF did you think that last clause could possibly mean?)

The rest of the book is OK.