Book Reviews: Technology and Applications
Systems Ultra: Making Sense of Technology in a Complex World
Georgina Voss. Brooklyn, NY: Verso. 2024. 214 pages, including index.
Index Terms—infrastructures, power dynamics, social inequity, systems thinking, technology
Reviewed by Gregory Zobel, Associate Professor, Western Oregon University.
Georgina Voss’s Systems Ultra: Making Sense of Technology in a Complex World is delightful, smart, and engaging. Rarely do books about systems, critical literacies, or social justice deliver engaging prose, exciting details, witty observations, and copious connections to theories, histories, experiences, and locations. The book is an accomplishment and a joy.
Voss accomplishes what many academic writers and texts often try for: a relevant, effective, and engaging analysis. In this case, understanding problems that arise from “systems thinking” or systems’ related methodologies. She argues these “systems,” while initially discovered while grounded in actual material, biological, and/or relational environments, are almost always removed by observers from their original context and then used to frame and understand other problems in different contexts. This enables users and experts to ignore the original contexts’ power dynamics, inequities, and problems while applying a clean “system” label to other, unrelated contexts.
Whether Voss is discussing the history and development of shipping containers, modernization of ports, complexities of European air traffic control maps, or financial processing challenges of gray area industries, she fills her pages with tight, bright prose. She offers readers awe, spectacle, sensory awareness, and incisive insights into system labels, the problems they perpetuate, and additional challenges they create.
Ostensibly, the book’s purpose is to help make sense of technology in a complex world—hence the subtitle of this book. While Systems Ultra does this throughout its six chapters, Voss makes clear: “This is a book about making sense of what is meant by ‘systems’” (p. 7). Voss does this by examining multiple technological examples and environments such as airplanes and flight paths, high technology maker labs, shipping logistics and construction, as well as automobile manufacturing, pornography, and financial infrastructures. Understanding technology by understanding their infrastructures is how Voss addresses her central goal: critically thinking about and understanding “systems.” Her “making sense” is built upon understanding the slippery, and often cagily applied-by-experts term, “systems.” As Voss states,
“…the idea of systems has become expert at peeling apart the relations from the context, replicating and reinforcing the power structures that sustain it. This is why a systems literacy is particularly vital when challenging tradition and working towards dismantling social inequity” (p.25).
Voss’ endnotes are robust but not overwhelming. Her vocabulary is smart, informed, accurate, and yet still avoids jargon that many similar analyses wallow into when written from an academic perspective. And it is this touch that makes the book so approachable.
It’s worth noting that my first read of the first few chapters was not nearly as pleasant as this review. I had to set the book down and return to it about a month later. Upon re-reading it, what initially struck me as a bit complex and overwhelming—whether that was the framing, writing, or concepts—it had become lucid, engaging, and smart. All this is to say, if at first read, the book does not connect, it is worth coming back to and discovering just how wonderful it is upon return.
Financial Technologies and DeFi: A Revisit to the Digital Finance Revolution
Abeba N. Turi, ed. London, England: Springer. 2024. 142 pages.
Index Terms—blockchain, digital wallets, fintech
Reviewed by Aditya Yusta Kalpika Student, Universitas Gadjah Mada, supported by Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan (LPDP), Indonesia.
This edited volume explores the transformative impact of financial technology (fintech) on traditional financial institutions, highlighting how the integration of finance and technology has revolutionized customer experiences and expectations. This shift has prompted collaborations between traditional banks and fintech firms to maintain market share. It also traces the origins of fintech to Bitcoin’s emergence and discusses the role of stablecoins in cryptocurrency markets.
Additionally, Financial Technologies and DeFi: A Revisit to the Digital Finance Revolution provides a comprehensive analysis of the implications of transitioning to a blockchain-based decentralized key management system (DKMS) for digital payments. It delves into the theory and practice of patent and property rights schemes within distributed ledger technology, offering a holistic view of blockchain-based patent systems and their interaction with other markets. This book also examines the allocative efficiency achieved through self-enforcing protocols, the potential of blockchain-based patent systems to enhance cryptocurrency financial stability, and blockchain’s potential for traceability and immutable ownership records. It also addresses the complexities of food traceability systems and explores new product lines for banking in the metaverse, including the implications of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC).
Turi’s research employs a mixed-methods approach to explore the implementation and impact of blockchain technology in the food supply chain and fintech sector. The study analyzes the impact of blockchain on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the food supply chain, focusing on food traceability and safety. It also examines fintech’s role in market structure, technologies used, and challenges faced by financial institutions. The research further discusses the technical tools and technologies used in blockchain-based systems, analyzing their impact on food traceability and safety.
The comprehensive analysis reveals the evolving landscape of digital finance, highlighting the transformative impact of cryptocurrencies, digital wallets, and blockchain technology, especially the pivotal role of digital wallets in the modern financial system, particularly among millennials and Gen Z, and the shift from centralized traditional payment systems to decentralized systems using public and private keys. It systematically reviews payment technologies, focusing on the surge in blockchain-based patent applications and their impact on financial sector innovation. Additionally, it addresses the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) in financial services and the need for regulatory clarity to foster innovation. Finally, the analysis provides a clear picture of current progress and future directions in the fintech sector, particularly in payment technologies, open banking, and decentralized lending.
The book’s strengths include detailed organization, in-depth analysis of blockchain-based patent systems, and practical discussion of fintech implications. However, it lacks depth in discussing metaverse economics and traditional financial systems and overemphasizes collaboration and standardization without addressing implementation challenges.
Overall, Financial Technologies and DeFi offers a comprehensive exploration of the evolving digital financial landscape, focusing on the transformative impact of cryptocurrencies, digital wallets, and blockchain technology. It provides valuable insights for researchers, industry professionals, and policymakers, particularly on fintech trends, blockchain-based patent systems, and the metaverse economy.