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