Marginal Revolution Book Rankings

Tyler and Alex's favorites from Marginal Revolution

How it works: I scraped every post categorized under 'books'. Then extracted book titles and relevant review context from each post. I then submitted a couple million pairs of reviews to an LLM to compare and determine which book review had more positive sentiment. I used these comparisons to fit a Bradley-Terry model which produces these rankings. I racked up a gemini bill so stopped shy of exhaustive 16 million comparisons, so it's not perfect, but roughly accurate.

Genre: Future Studies ×
Showing 49 books in Future Studies
College Unbound: The Future of Higher Education and What It Means for Students
1. College Unbound: The Future of Higher Education and What It Means for Students
BT: 10.49 232 comparisons
education future studies higher education social science
MR Post
The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies
2. The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies
BT: 8.26 192 comparisons
economics future studies social science technology
MR Post MR Post
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3. Overcomplicated: Technology at the Limits of Comprehension
BT: 4.42 207 comparisons
future studies non-fiction technology
MR Post
W
4. War: What is it Good for? The Role of Conflict in Civilisation, from Primates to Robots
BT: 2.95 230 comparisons
future studies history history of technology military history +3
MR Post
T
5. The World in 2050: Four Forces Shaping Civilization's Northern Future
BT: 2.83 213 comparisons
arctic studies climate change economics environmental studies +3
MR Post
B
6. Building the Intentional University: Minerva and the Future of Higher Education
BT: 2.75 269 comparisons
education educational philosophy educational reform future studies +1
MR Post
U
7. Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley are Transforming the Future of War
BT: 2.26 647 comparisons
economics future studies military studies national security +3
MR Post MR Post +1 more
S
8. Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies
BT: 1.72 257 comparisons
artificial intelligence future studies philosophy technology
MR Post
R
9. Robot Futures
BT: 1.69 282 comparisons
artificial intelligence future studies robotics technology
MR Post
S
10. Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future
BT: 1.32 304 comparisons
artificial intelligence business economics future studies +1
MR Post
T
11. The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves
BT: 1.19 293 comparisons
economics evolutionary science future studies philosophy +2
MR Post
T
12. Total Recall: How the E-Memory Revolution Will Change Everything
BT: 0.94 324 comparisons
data science future studies science technology
MR Post
H
13. Human Nature: A Blueprint for Managing the Earth — By People, For People
BT: 0.86 309 comparisons
biotechnology environmental policy environmental science future studies +1
MR Post
T
14. The AI Does Not Hate You: Superintelligence, Rationality and the Race to Save the World
BT: 0.62 348 comparisons
ai safety artificial intelligence ethics existential risk +4
MR Post
I
15. In Line Behind a Billion People: How Scarcity Will Define China’s Ascent in the Next Decade
BT: 0.59 374 comparisons
asian studies china economics future studies +2
MR Post
F
16. Fewer, Richer, Greener: Prospects for Humanity in an Age of Abundance
BT: 0.56 316 comparisons
demography economics environmental economics future studies
MR Post
T
17. The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow’s World
BT: 0.54 1152 comparisons
economics environmental science future studies history of science +1
MR Post MR Post +3 more
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18. Innovation and Equality: How to Create a Future That is More Star Trek and Less Terminator
BT: 0.53 333 comparisons
economics future studies social science technology
MR Post
B
19. Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future
BT: 0.14 968 comparisons
china chinese studies economics future studies +3
MR Post MR Post +1 more
D
20. Disunited Nations: The Scramble for Power in a Disunited World
BT: 0.01 353 comparisons
economics future studies geography geopolitics +2
MR Post
A
21. Average is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation
BT: -0.24 1326 comparisons
american economy artificial intelligence business economics +3
MR Post MR Post +2 more
A
22. Abundance
BT: -0.42 1441 comparisons
economics future studies non-fiction politics +3
MR Post MR Post +3 more
T
23. The Great Stagnation: How America…(Eventually) Will Feel Better Again.
BT: -0.42 327 comparisons
american economics economics future studies technology
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24. Japan Restored: How Japan Can Reinvent Itself and Why This is Important for America and the World
BT: -0.48 395 comparisons
economics future studies international relations japan +1
MR Post
K
25. Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials
BT: -0.59 331 comparisons
economics future studies social commentary sociology
MR Post
A
26. Accelerating India’s Development
BT: -0.67 385 comparisons
asian studies development economics economics future studies +5
MR Post
T
27. The Great Stagnation
BT: -0.82 7908 comparisons
economics future studies innovation technology
MR Post MR Post +21 more
T
28. The Last Lingua Franca: English Until the Return of Babel
BT: -0.92 383 comparisons
future studies global studies linguistics social science
MR Post
S
29. Six Degrees
BT: -0.96 394 comparisons
climate change ecology environmental science future studies +1
MR Post
F
30. Future Imperfect
BT: -1.00 368 comparisons
economics future studies legal studies public policy +2
MR Post
T
31. The Patient Will See You Now: The Future of Medicine is in Your Hands
BT: -1.13 355 comparisons
economics future studies healthcare medicine +1
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M
32. More From Less
BT: -1.21 402 comparisons
economics environmental economics environmentalism future studies +2
MR Post
A
33. Astronomical Waste
BT: -1.55 370 comparisons
ethics existential risk future studies longtermism +1
MR Post
T
34. The Second Machine Age
BT: -1.59 697 comparisons
business economics future studies technology
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D
35. Depopulation: An Investor’s Guide to Value in the Twenty-First Century
BT: -1.62 365 comparisons
business demographics economics finance +2
MR Post
C
36. Cybernation: The Silent Conquest
BT: -1.84 420 comparisons
automation cybernetics future studies sociology +1
MR Post
T
37. The Future of the Internet — and How to Stop It
BT: -1.93 350 comparisons
future studies internet technology
MR Post
C
38. Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis
BT: -2.24 360 comparisons
crisis analysis economics finance future studies +3
MR Post
T
39. The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts
BT: -3.14 333 comparisons
business economics future studies social science +1
MR Post
W
40. Who Needs College Anymore? Imagining a Future Where Degrees Don’t Matter
BT: -3.18 358 comparisons
education future studies social science
MR Post
P
41. Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future
BT: -3.34 341 comparisons
economics future studies social science
MR Post
C
42. Climatopolis: How Our Cities Will Thrive in a Hotter Future
BT: -3.35 352 comparisons
climate change economics environmental studies future studies +3
MR Post
G
43. Global Catastrophic Risks
BT: -3.57 268 comparisons
existential risk future studies global issues non-fiction +2
MR Post
T
44. The Great Reset
BT: -3.70 246 comparisons
economics future studies global affairs politics
MR Post
H
45. Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
BT: -3.75 282 comparisons
future studies history non-fiction philosophy +2
MR Post
T
46. The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity
BT: -3.89 298 comparisons
existential risk future studies philosophy
MR Post
T
47. The Permanent Problem: The Uncertain Transition from Mass Plenty to Mass Flourishing
BT: -4.05 266 comparisons
economics future studies public policy social science
MR Post
D
48. Darwin’s Devices: What Evolving Robots Can Teach Us About the History of Life and the Future of Technology
BT: -4.19 160 comparisons
artificial intelligence biology evolutionary biology future studies +3
MR Post
C
49. Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civiliation
BT: -4.43 189 comparisons
future studies geopolitics global affairs urban studies
MR Post