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Power and Progress

Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity

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Power and Progress

By: Simon Johnson, Daron Acemoglu
Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
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About this listen

Two bestselling authors deliver a bold interpretation of why technology has all too often benefited elites - and how we must reshape the path of innovation to create true shared prosperity.

A thousand years of history and contemporary evidence make one thing clear. Progress is not automatic but depends on the choices we make about technology. New ways of organizing production and communication can either serve the narrow interests of an elite or become the foundation for widespread prosperity.

Much of the wealth generated by agricultural advances during the European Middle Ages was captured by the Church and used to build grand cathedrals while the peasants starved. The first hundred years of industrialization in England delivered stagnant incomes for workers, while making a few people very rich. And throughout the world today, digital technologies and artificial intelligence increase inequality and undermine democracy through excessive automation, massive data collection, and intrusive surveillance.

It doesn't have to be this way. Power and Progress demonstrates that the path of technology was once - and can again be - brought under control. The tremendous computing advances of the last half century can become empowering and democratizing tools, but not if all major decisions remain in the hands of a few hubristic tech leaders striving to build a society that elevates their own power and prestige.

With their breakthrough economic theory and manifesto for a better society, Acemoglu and Johnson provide the understanding and the vision to reshape how we innovate and who really gains from technological advances so we can create real prosperity for all.

2023, Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award, Long-listed

2023, Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, Long-listed

©2023 Simon Johnson and Daron Acemoglu (P)2023 Hachette Audio
Business & Careers Economics Innovation Business Economic disparity Employment Economic Inequality Artificial Intelligence

Critic Reviews

If you are not already an addict of Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson's previous books, Power and Progress is guaranteed to make you one. It offers their addictive hallmarks: sparkling writing and a big question that affects our lives . . . Read, enjoy, and then choose your lifestyle! (Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL)
In this brilliant, sweeping review of technological change past and present, Acemoglu and Johnson mean to grab us by the shoulders and shake us awake before today's winner-take-all technologies impose more violence on global society and the democratic prospect. This vital book is a necessary antidote to the poisonous rhetoric of tech inevitability . . . Power and Progress is the blueprint we need for the challenges ahead (Shoshana Zuboff, author of THE AGE OF SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM)
One powerful thread runs through this breathtaking tour of the history and future of technology, from the Neolithic agricultural revolution to the ascent of artificial intelligence: Technology is not destiny, nothing is pre-ordained . . . In this age of relentless automation and seemingly unstoppable consolidation of power and wealth, Power and Progress is an essential reminder that we can, and must, take back control (Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, 2019 Nobel laureates in Economics)

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