Power and Progress Our Thousand-year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity
Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity by Daron Acemoglu, published by PublicAffairs in 2024, presents a critical examination of the relationship between technology and economic prosperity. This 592-page work delves into how technological advancements, from historical agricultural improvements to modern artificial intelligence, have often served the interests of the powerful rather than the public good. Acemoglu and co-author Simon Johnson challenge the prevailing narrative of techno-optimism, revealing how the benefits of technological change have historically been appropriated by elites, leaving many in a state of illusion regarding progress.
Readers will find a thorough exploration of how technological choices have shaped societal structures and economic conditions throughout history. The authors illustrate their arguments with vivid historical examples, highlighting the appropriation of wealth by powerful groups and the resulting marginalization of broader populations. The book emphasizes the need for a reevaluation of technological development to ensure it fosters job creation and equitable opportunities, rather than exacerbating inequality. Through their analysis, Acemoglu and Johnson offer a framework for understanding the dynamics of technology and its impact on society, aiming to inspire a shift towards a more inclusive approach to innovation.
Official synopsis Publisher
Awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics, Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson overturn conventional wisdom about how economies work–revealing the untold story of who wins and who loses the rewards of prosperity–in a work that fundamentally transforms how we look at and understand the world.
Throughout history, technological change — whether it takes the form of agricultural improvements in the Middle Ages, the Industrial Revolution, or today’s artificial intelligence — has been viewed as a main driver of prosperity, working in the public interest. The reality, though, is that technology is shaped by what powerful people want and believe, generating riches, social respect, cultural prominence, and further political voice for those already powerful. For most of the rest of us, there is the illusion of progress.
Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson debunk modern techno-optimism through a dazzling, original account of how technological choices have changed the course of history. From vivid stories of how the economic surplus of the Middle Ages was appropriated by an ecclesiastical elite to build cathedrals while the peasants starved, to the making of vast fortunes from digital technologies today as millions are pushed towards poverty, we see how the path of technology is determined and who influences its trajectory.
To achieve the true potential of innovation, we need to ensure technology is creating new jobs and opportunities rather than marginalizing most people, through automated work and political passivity. We need to use the tremendous digital advances of the last half century to create useful and empowering tools, and seize back control from a small elite of hubristic, messianic tech leaders pursuing
their own interests.
With their breakthrough economic theory and manifesto for building a better society, Acemoglu and Johnson provide the understanding and vision to reimagine and reshape the path of technology and create true shared prosperity.
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