Power and Progress

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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.
 

Our Top Reviews

Reviewer: khetha
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: power and progress
Review: I really enjoyed how this book, ‘Power and Progress’ by Daron Acemoglu, makes you think and how it sets the scene with historical events. Some people might find its ideas a bit challenging, especially the part where it talks about how we can shape the way technology grows and changes. But I think it’s an important idea for more people to think about and talk about. I read this book at the same time as ‘Chip Wars’ and ‘The Power Law,’ and I feel like all three books work really well together. They each have different things to say, but when you read them all, you get a fuller picture. They help you understand more about how technology, power, and progress are all connected.

Reviewer: Todd Eric Kelsey
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Important insight needed right now.
Review: I’ve been studying the impact of automation and ai on the job market since 2017, and you often hear speculation or attempts to downplay the number of jobs that will be lost to AI. Now with ChatGPT getting headlines, people are taking this issue more seriously.Bottom line, job destruction is automated but job creation is not. And though data is not easy to find (very few companies are willing to say how many people are let go from AI), it is there, and half of companies across verticals report significant headcount reduction from robotic process automation.And just recently more CEO’s are more open and honest about this.Society needs to act. I hope every member of congress, the senate, parliaments around the world read this book and take it very seriously.Daron and Simon are not alarmists – they lay out a realist perspective.

Reviewer: Maximiliano
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: It’s OK.
Review: The usual academic proficiency of the author, but kind of boring.

Reviewer: Tuohy
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Invaluable material, interesting, and readable. Highly recommended.
Review: I am old, now retired from careers in universities, engineering, and government. For years I have been concerned – personally and professionalliy – with issues raised in this book. These authors have done an outstanding job of cutting through the noise and rhetoric of much if not most literature on these topics. They transcend the narrowness and self-promotion found in academic disciplines – poliitical science (sic), economics, sociology, etc. – and guide the reader through concerns that matter most in the real world.What technology is, who controls it, and how the latter manipulate our thinking to “sell” the results and mandates of those technologies.In sum, reading this book is relatively easy, often thrilling, and perhaps emotionally stressful if it leads the readers to question fundamental understandings of how societies function.

Reviewer: The Kekistani
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Nothing New Under The Sun
Review: Acemoglu has peaked for me for a while now, he manages to isolate problems in our system but fails to provide creative solutions, he reverts back to more state control over every other solution in the end.He also very strategically failed to talk about how Google, Facebook, Twitter (before Elon) got in bed with certain US state agencies and implements wide array political censorship to whomever stands against the left, Acemoglu is obviously taking side in the matter and underplaying -nay- completely skipping the far left oppression directed towards free speech in the West which is on par with Russian or Chinese state oppression. Sad to see him suffer from TDS as well, he is no longer and objective voice in these matters in my opinion.

Reviewer: AK
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great historical perspective
Review: Blind techno optimism, like any kind of blind faith, doesn’t sound like a good idea. To that end, the book definitely opens one’s eyes through interesting examples and various historical perspectives that raise concerns and alarm us to the need of understanding technological trends and aligning policies and institutions to try to maximize and to broaden the societal benefits while containing the undesirable effects.

Reviewer: Ismar Tuzovic
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Very well researched, insightful with extensive bibliography
Review: Provides a coherent framework for how technology impacts on economic growth, wages and wealth distribution by drawing on history of economies, societies and organisations. I learnt a lot from this book and the framework is extremely useful in framing how technological change together with social and economic relations and decisions impact on the world we live in. The bibliography is extensive and well organised allowing for deep dive on many of the fascinating topics covered in the book, that will continue to be of use for many years to come. I’ve read some of the prior materials from the authors, and they are definitely on my top list of thought leaders to follow. Many thanks for a great book.

Reviewer: A M
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: An excellent review of the history of technology and a manifesto-like criticism of AI
Review: The book reviews several cases in the history of technology where only the wealthy people enjoyed improving the technology while the status of the workers was worsened. It claims that we are in a similar situation following the application of automation and AI. I enjoyed reading the chapters about history very much but found the manifesto-like chapters at the end of the book less convincing.An excellent review of the history of technology and a manifesto-like criticism of AI

Reviewer: Endriady Abidin
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Excellent book. A must read, especially for those who want to understand the real “Industrial Revolution 4.0” and its impact for all of us.

Reviewer: Frederico
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: It is very difficult to cover these topics in a single book, but it was perfectly done by the authors. Explaining the past and discussing the future, the content knowledge is very powerful in the right hands. If you are interested to know what is behind business and governamental decisions, this is the right book.

Reviewer: Cliente de Amazon
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Llegó perfectamente empacado y en tiempo récord.

Reviewer: Daniel Martin
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Le progrès des technologies a apporté à la société humaine tantôt du progrès (plus d’emplois, mieux payés et moins pénibles), tantôt de la régression (emplois perdus ou sous-payés, horaires excessifs, surveillance intrusive dans une dictature…) : cet essai le montre à l’aide d’innombrables exemples historiques bien documentés.Il montre aussi que les technologies ne sont pas bénéfiques ou maléfiques en elles-mêmes, car leur résultat social dépend d’abord de choix faits par les détenteurs du pouvoir : chefs des gouvernements, patrons des entreprises de taille mondiale, etc. Il dépend ensuite des contrepouvoirs sociaux (syndicats, opinion publique…) et de leurs moyens de communication (médias, réseaux sociaux…). Il dépend enfin des institutions (démocratie permettant la liberté d’expression et de choix, ou tyrannie opprimant le peuple grâce aux technologies de surveillance et de base de données).Pouvoirs de décision et contrepouvoirs choisiront ainsi, dans le cadre des institutions, comment les technologies évolueront et comment elles seront mises en œuvre. Leur impact social dépend de ces choix, qui les engagent.J’ai été frappé par la remarquable clarté du texte et sa qualité pédagogique. Les exemples cités sont intéressants et illustrent bien les prises de position sociologiques des auteurs. Ceux-ci insistent longuement sur le caractère illusoire de l’intelligence artificielle actuelle, utilisée seulement pour de modestes gains de temps et non pour des évolutions majeures des méthodes de travail permettant de vrais progrès. Selon eux, l’apport de l’IA est insignifiant dans un PIB de pays ou un chiffre d’affaires. C’est le seul (petit) reproche que je leur fais : il y a des activités où l’IA bouleverse un travail individuel, comme la recherche d’informations, la traduction, la rédaction de synthèses de réunion et les diagnostics techniques ou médicaux.J’ai appris beaucoup de choses dans ce livre, et de façon bien agréable.

Reviewer: Yasar Erdi Sasmaz
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Good

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