The Most Dammed Country in the World

Oct 8, 2024 6:39 AM

Author:Dai Qing

In twenty short books, Penguin brings you the classics of the environmental movement.

The courageous, unflinching speeches and writings collected in The Most Dammed Country in the World detail the devastating human and environmental cost of China's economic rise.

Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As life on Earth has become irrevocably altered by humans, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend the planet, and affirm our place at the heart of its restoration. Their words have endured through the decades, becoming the classics of a movement. Together, these books show the richness of environmental thought, and point the way to a fairer, saner, greener world.

Reviews

Thought provoking and necessary

—— Guardian

Briskly and breezily, it [12 Bytes] joins the dots in a neglected narrative of female scientists, visionaries and code-breakers

—— Claire Armitstead , Observer

12 punchy, fact-laden and witty essays... Her writing engulfs you in lucid, fairytale-like realities that take you on gender-bending and time-warped explorations of religion, love, sex, and sexual identity.

—— Charlotte Cripps , Independent

An unusual and entertaining read...[12 Bytes] is inflected with the same delightful, dry humour as the rest of her work... With its imaginative, insightful and wide-ranging essays, 12 Bytes will undoubtedly prompt readers to begin their own circlings around AI.

—— Laura Grace Simpkins , New Scientist

Aspects of this AI future are frightening...[and] for any non-scientist wanting to understand the challenges and possibilities of this brave new world, I can't think of a more engaging place to start.

—— Stephanie Merritt , Observer

Quite brilliant.

—— i

This is, among other things, a very funny book... we are hardly short of dystopias, fictional and otherwise. Winterson's approach is much richer and more fun: a kind of comparative mythology, where the hype and ideology of cutting-edge tech is read through the lens of far older stories.

—— Steven Poole , Spectator

[Winterson's] essays...are agile, fascinating, richly varied and beautifully idiosyncratic.

—— Joanna Kavenna , Literary Review

Winterson... is always passionate and provocative.

—— Johanna Thomas-Corr , New Statesman

Refreshingly optimistic.

—— Steven Poole , Guardian

Lively, frequently laugh-aloud funny...the 12 essays use a combination of history, literature, religion, science fiction and electronics to extend our mental horizons.

—— Christina Hardyment , The Times, *Audiobooks of the Year*

[Winterson] reflects on the history - and future - of technology in essays that whirr with anarchic intelligence

—— Daily Telegraph

What makes this audiobook essential listening is not just its content...but the electricity of Winterson's narration. Lively, funny...the 12 essays in 12 Bytes use history, science fiction and electronics to extend our mental horizons.

—— Christina Hardyment , The Times, *Audiobook of the Week*

Wry, reflective and acerbic essays looking at the impact of artificial intelligence.

—— Guardian

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