#9 in Technology & IT
New out June 23, 2026
The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI
- 143
- Pages
- about 2.5 h
- Reading time
- NYT bestseller · 2 weeks on the list
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About the book
In modern tech parlance, a centaur is a person who is able to use technology to be a better, more productive version of themself. A reverse centaur is a person who is forced by technology to work at an inhuman pace—a driver made to deliver all day long, nonstop; a warehouse worker made to work without food or bathroom breaks; a programmer made to crank out impossible amounts of code. The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI is not another anti-AI screed. Cory Doctorow uses AI in his work every day. As a creative person, he has no moral or dogmatic issue with AI—he thinks the technology is useful, even exciting, and full of potential. And yet. AI has arrived surrounded by unprecedented hype driven by a tech industry desperate to maintain its unprecedented valuation based on its own promises of endless financial growth. Despite the fact that almost all of AI’s real-world implementations have proved underwhelming, AI is projected to be worth more than $16 trillion—a number that only makes sense if AI replaces vast swathes of the wage-earning human workforce. To justify that level of “value,” every story about AI must be presented as inevitable, world-changing disruption. Even the tales of the robot apocalypse are a calculated attempt to bolster the fearsome power of AI. For Doctorow, it is imperative to see through that hype to the real story, to understand the technology not just for what it does, but for who it does it to and who it does it for.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.4 across 78 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 35% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Technology & IT average of 8.1. That is how 8.2 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardcover | 8.4 | 78 | 100% |
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