The Autonomous Revolution: Reclaiming the Future We've Sold to Machines

by William Davidow, Michael S. Malone, David Kennedy (Foreword by)

Overview

The coauthors of the seminal book The Virtual Corporation describe how the rise of artificial intelligence and virtual environments are ushering in an epic cultural transformation—and how we can thrive in this new era.

We are at the dawn of the Autonomous Revolution, a turning point in human history as decisive as the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. More and more, AI-based machines are replacing human beings, and online environments are gathering our data and using it to manipulate us. This loss of human autonomy amounts to nothing less than a societal phase change, a fundamental paradigm shift. The same institutions will remain—schools, banks, churches, and corporations—but they will radically change form, obey new rules, and use new tools.

William H. Davidow and Michael S. Malone go deeply into the enormous implications of these developments. They show why increases in productivity no longer translate into increases in the GDP and how zero cost, one-to-many communications have been turned into tools for cybercrime and propaganda. Many of the book's recommendations—such as using taxes to control irresponsible internet behavior and enabling people to put their data into what are essentially virtual personal information "safety deposit boxes"—are bold and visionary, but we must figure out how we will deal with these emerging challenges now, before the Autonomous Revolution overcomes us.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781523087617
Publisher:	Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Publication date:	02/18/2020
Pages:	264
Sales rank:	1,073,392
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

William Davidow was Intel's senior vice president of marketing and sales, where he is credited with inventing modern high-tech marketing. He cofounded the venture capital firm Mohr Davidow in 1985. He is the author of three books and the coauthor of two, including The Virtual Corporation, which sold more than 100,000 copies.

Michael S. Malone covered the technology beat for the San Jose Mercury News in the 1980s and remains one of world's best-known technology-business journalists. He is the author or coauthor of nearly thirty books, including The Virtual Corporation with William Davidow. He is currently dean's executive professor at Santa Clara University.

Table of Contents

Foreword David M. Kennedy ix

Introduction: Digital Leviathan 1

Chapter 1 The Autonomous Revolution: A Third Social Revolution 6

Chapter 2 A Brief History of Social Phase Changes: Why This Time Things Are Different 21

Chapter 3 Substitutional Equivalences: The Drivers of Societal Phase Change 39

Chapter 4 Productivity without Prosperity: The Emerging Era of Non-Monetizable Productivity 51

Chapter 5 Commercial Transformation: Rewriting Business and the Economy 70

Chapter 6 The Death of the Good Job: The Nature of Work in the Autonomous Revolution 95

Chapter 7 Liberty and Privacy: Escaping the Algorithmic Prison 113

Chapter 8 Within the Chimera: Living in a Virtual World 132

Chapter 9 The Body Politic: Government in the Autonomous Revolution 158

Chapter 10 Sacred Values: Novi Coeptus 181

Notes 197

Acknowledgments 227

Index 229

About the Authors 243

Editorial Reviews

Lots of books talk about what’s happening. This book talks about the why behind the what. It will transform your view of the future.”
—Geoffrey Moore, author of Crossing the Chasm and Zone to Win
 
“Successful business leaders, especially in finance, will have to deal with the challenges of phase change. If they do not, their businesses will evaporate into virtual space.”
—Sandy Weill, philanthropist and former CEO, Citigroup
 
“Terror and war have undergone phase change. Future battles will be fought with new tools using new rules. The winners will leverage many of the ideas in this book.”
—Admiral B. R. Inman, US Navy (Ret.), former Director, National Security Agency
 
“Davidow and Malone offer an original and exquisite explanation—a new lens into history—as to how new technologies have brought the Industrial Revolution to an end and ushered in the Autonomous Revolution.”
—Amy Webb, Professor, Stern School of Business, New York University
 
“None of us can yet be sure whether the Autonomous Revolution, now dawning, will turn out to be the third great transformation in human organization and existence, following the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. But William Davidow and Michael Malone argue convincingly that we should start acting as if it will be so we can steer its consequences toward their beneficial potential rather than being victims of each new technological surprise.”
—James Fallows, author, writer, and National Book Award winner

From the Publisher

12/13/2019

Davidow and Malone (coauthors, The Virtual Corporation) offer a provocative work combining historical inquiry, present-day technology crises, and possible future solutions. More than solely addressing automation, as implied by its title, this volume provides ample historical context, from the British Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution in the 17th and 18th centuries, through the present era, which the authors deem the Autonomous Revolution. In this new era, the challenges technologies bring are profoundly threatening to our livelihoods, liberties, and security. While not specifically focused on Artificial Intelligence writ large, this book is a worthy exploration of adjacent and distinct concerns of technology in general, including best practices for the future of privacy, presenting original solutions to myriad privacy and security issues. VERDICT This work will find an active readership among historians of technology and those with an interest in popular historical narratives that focus on the social science angle of technologies.—Jim Hahn, Univ. Lib., Univ. of Illinois, Urbana

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