If you are asked to come up with an endless list of possibilities on a topic that you have substantial expertise on, you will enjoy the exercise, and you will indeed come up with an endless list! Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen do something similar in the book titled ' The New Digital Age'.
It is a thought exercise by two people who understand the internet and the world of communication technology very well. The thought exercise is thematically divided into various topics - such as the future of revolution, future of nation states, future of terrorism - but is founded on a few key thought streams - ie - the ability of the governments to control the internet, the quality of encryption technology and penetration of the mobile internet. While it was interesting reading, the leaps they took were inconsistent, in some cases, you could see a prediction becoming a reality in a finite time frame, but in some other cases - there was no basis to say whether this would take 10 or 100 years to be realised. More importantly, with some of the predictions, the internet was only the medium and the technology to deliver the prediction needed to make advances in other sciences - including drug delivery and drug discovery.
The most powerful piece in the entire book was about how governments could use technology to wage a virtual cold war on countries - without ever having to escalate the same in the physical space. The example of the Stuxnet , created by the NSA, to impregnate and disable the Iranian nuclear program was a really insightful piece.
Where it lacked was bold predictions in the use of the internet in crowd sourcing - as different from creating revolutions - which I think is one of the most exciting areas associated with the internet and really has the multiplier effect that only the internet can deliver.
Overall, worth a quick read, but not really insightful in its entirety.
It is a thought exercise by two people who understand the internet and the world of communication technology very well. The thought exercise is thematically divided into various topics - such as the future of revolution, future of nation states, future of terrorism - but is founded on a few key thought streams - ie - the ability of the governments to control the internet, the quality of encryption technology and penetration of the mobile internet. While it was interesting reading, the leaps they took were inconsistent, in some cases, you could see a prediction becoming a reality in a finite time frame, but in some other cases - there was no basis to say whether this would take 10 or 100 years to be realised. More importantly, with some of the predictions, the internet was only the medium and the technology to deliver the prediction needed to make advances in other sciences - including drug delivery and drug discovery.
The most powerful piece in the entire book was about how governments could use technology to wage a virtual cold war on countries - without ever having to escalate the same in the physical space. The example of the Stuxnet , created by the NSA, to impregnate and disable the Iranian nuclear program was a really insightful piece.
Where it lacked was bold predictions in the use of the internet in crowd sourcing - as different from creating revolutions - which I think is one of the most exciting areas associated with the internet and really has the multiplier effect that only the internet can deliver.
Overall, worth a quick read, but not really insightful in its entirety.
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