Technological Economics

In this groundbreaking treatise, Palantir co-founder and CEO Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska offer a searing critique of our collective abandonment of ambition, arguing that in order for the U.S. and its allies to retain their global edge—and preserve the freedoms we take for granted—the software industry must renew its commitment to addressing our most urgent challenges, including the new arms race of artificial intelligence. The government, in turn, must embrace the most effective features of the engineering mindset that has propelled Silicon Valley’s success.

Jacques Ellul’s The Technological Society has become a classic in its field, laying the groundwork for all other studies of technology and society that have followed. Ellul offers a penetrating analysis of our technological civilization, showing how technology - which began innocuously enough as a servant of humankind - threatens to overthrow humanity itself in its ongoing creation of an environment that meets its own ends. No conversation about the dangers of technology and its unavoidable effects on society can begin without a careful listening of this book.

The idea that human history is approaching a "singularity" - that ordinary humans will someday be overtaken by artificially intelligent machines or cognitively enhanced biological intelligence, or both - has moved from the realm of science fiction to serious debate. Some singularity theorists predict that if the field of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to develop at its current dizzying rate, the singularity could come about in the middle of the present century.

When economist Angus Deaton immigrated to the United States from Britain in the early 1980s, he was awed by America’s strengths and shocked by the extraordinary gaps he witnessed between people. Economics in America explains in clear terms how the field of economics addresses the most pressing issues of our times—from poverty, retirement, and the minimum wage to the ravages of the nation’s uniquely disastrous health care system—and narrates Deaton’s own account of his experiences as a naturalized US citizen and academic economist.

Financial market bubbles are recurring, often painful, reminders of the costs and benefits of capitalism. While many books have studied financial manias and crises, most fail to compare times of turmoil with times of stability. In Bubbles and Crashes, Brent Goldfarb and David A. Kirsch give us new insights into the causes of speculative booms and busts. They identify a class of assets - major technological innovations - that can, but does not necessarily, produce bubbles.

This landmark treatise by the great economist Henry George was first published in 1879. George's work became the seminal analysis of the political economy which inspired most, if not all, the prominent thinkers of the Progressive Movement and many others of great influence: Upton Sinclair, John Dewey, George Bernard Shaw, Friedrich Hayek, H. G. Wells, Clarence Darrow, and Leo Tolstoy, to name but a few. His analyses and proposals are referred to as "Georgism".

The nine core strategies that will help companies keep customers, attract quality talent, generate revenue, and improve the communities around them, all in the face of new disruptive forces. Beyond Great will give listeners everywhere the strategies they need to navigate a daunting new era of technological, economic, and social change. Supported by years of research and hands-on consulting practice, it will present a comprehensive framework for building a high-performing, adaptive, and socially responsible global company.

Drawing from an incredibly rich trove of global data, this groundbreaking book reveals that human progress has been slowing down since the early 1970s. Danny Dorling uses compelling visualizations to illustrate how fertility rates, growth in GDP per person, increases in life expectancy, and even the frequency of new social movements have all steadily declined over the last few generations.

Our world is constantly buffeted by new and dramatic changes we can't fully grasp. No one is fully prepared for the challenges, crises, and risks that lie ahead. The Extreme Future is a blueprint for what's next and how to navigate these changes.

Hoy en día, las revoluciones tecnológicas y digitales transforman de manera drástica y abrupta casi todas las facetas de nuestra vida, y cambian la forma de hacer las cosas, de producir y, también, de consumir. Es la llamada disrupción. Pero, ¿qué es realmente la disrupción? Para entenderlo haz lo siguiente: coge tu smartphone y piensa en todas las heroicidades que puedes hacer con él, en cuáles podrías llegar a hacer si lo dominaras por completo, y quiénes hacían todo eso hace no mucho y de qué manera.

The 20th century witnessed the triumph of democratic capitalism in the industrialized West, with widespread popular support for both free markets and representative elections. Today, that political consensus appears to be breaking down, disrupted by polarization and income inequality, widespread dissatisfaction with democratic institutions, and insurgent populism. Tracing the history of democratic capitalism over the past two centuries, Carles Boix explains how we got here - and where we could be headed.

There is a new vocabulary of injustice and inequality emerging out of society’s advances in technology. We are finding evermore outlandish ways of persecuting and violating the rights of citizens based on race, identity, and social bias. For some, the experiences of these injustices are commonplace; for others, they are completely foreign. Jim Code is a new glossary of technological injustice meant to inform and inspire the next generation of social activists and human and civil rights leaders.

Heard of bitcoin? Blockchain is actually far more than bitcoin. In fact, blockchain is hailed as the second coming of the Internet. Even in its infancy stage, it is taking the world by storm. The banks, the accounting firms and the financial companies are taking it seriously. But what is it and how does it affect us in our lives or our jobs? Is blockchain just another hyped up bubble or is it going to stay for real? Follow us through this book to understand blockchain and you decide whether it will affect us.