Wow, that is pretty fascinating. I learned a lot that I had no idea about previously.

I have followed North Korean policy and history for decades. This is an eye opening account of how the regime survives. Worst of all:
"… we may soon be entering a golden age for truly psychotic totalitarian regimes. The Kim Il-Sung of the future won't need an army of peasants expecting tile roofs if he has an army of killer robots, and ChatGPT is much cheaper than a full-time propaganda minister. Depending on how good AI gets, it will sharply reduce the number of people required to run an effective regime. In the limit, you can imagine a single mad king with no human servitors at all, just a computer as his grand vizier.8 There would be no limit to how brutal or crazy this guy could get, no limit to what he could do to his populace for fear of triggering a revolt amongst his own bodyguards. He would also be able to read the minds of dissidents."

Thank you for sharing this review. I stationed in ROK 87-88 before my time at A&M. I spent several nights at the llive firebase 4P3 working on RADAR system. The South at that time was still a third world country but was on the rise. I left 3 days before the 88 summer Olympic Games. I went back in 2003 as onsite support for my company & was amazed by the changes because South Korea was on par with Japan. Last time I was there was 2007 for a vacation. I feel for the Koreans stuck in the North because they are stuck between a rock and hard place. China wants North Korea as a buffer from Japan & the USA.


I will have to add this book to my reading list.