Via New Republic:
The goal of books such as this one is not to predict but to reassure—to show the commoners, who are unable on their own to develop any deep understanding of what awaits them, that the tech-savvy elites are sagaciously in control.
Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen:"The New Digital Age"'s Futurist Schlock | New Republic
Points:
- “…the great reassurers Schmidt and Cohen have no problem acknowledging the many downsides of the “new digital age”—without such downsides to mitigate, who would need these trusted guardians of the public welfare?”
- “The original concepts introduced in The New Digital Age derive their novelty from what might be described as the two-world hypothesis: that there is an analog world out there—where, say, people buy books by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen—and a matching virtual world, where all sorts of weird, dangerous, and subversive things might happen.”
- “Their unquestioned faith in the two-world hypothesis leads Cohen and Schmidt to repeat the old chestnut that there exists a virtual space free from laws and regulations.”
- “In the simplicity of its composition, Schmidt and Cohen’s book has a strongly formulaic—perhaps I should say algorithmic—character.”
- “Schmidt and Cohen’s book consistently substitutes unempirical speculation for a thorough engagement with what is already known.”
- “Why do so many of the trivial claims in this book appear to have gravitas? It’s quite simple: the two-world hypothesis endows claims, trends, and objects with importance—regardless of how inconsequential they really are—based solely on their membership in the new revolutionary world, which itself exists only because it has been posited by the hypothesis.”
Ponder: A contrarian take on a book written by high-powered tech executives.
Hardcover Kindle Audio
