Good day to all.
I just finished reading a book by Alec Ross titled
The Industries of the Future
and I was struck by one paragraph in the conclusion section;
Google’s Eric Schmidt reinforces the point about the importance of learning how to understand complex problems. When I asked Eric what skills he thought my kids would most need, he told me that “the biggest issue is simply the development of analytical skills. Most of the routine things people do will be done by computer, but people will manage the computers around them and the analytical skills will never go out of style.
The Table of Contents of the book gives good insight into many of the challenges and opportunities we have ahead of all of us.
INTRODUCTION
HERE COME THE ROBOTS Welcome your new job takers and caregivers. The coming decade will see societies transform as humans learn to live alongside robots.
THE FUTURE OF THE HUMAN MACHINE The last trillion-dollar industry was built on a code of 1s and 0s. The next will be built on our own genetic code.
THE CODE-IFICATION OF MONEY, MARKETS, AND TRUST Is there an algorithm for trust? New ways to exchange are forcing a rewrite of the compact between corporation, citizen, and government.
THE WEAPONIZATION OF CODE The world has left the Cold War behind only to enter into a Code War.
DATA: THE RAW MATERIAL OF THE INFORMATION AGE Land was the raw material of the agricultural age. Iron was the raw material of the industrial age. Data is the raw material of the information age.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF FUTURE MARKETS World leaders take notice: the 21st century is a terrible time to be a control freak.
CONCLUSION: THE MOST IMPORTANT JOB YOU WILL EVER HAVE”
Over the past year I have been working at the periphery of the immense technological change that is underway. This book get’s to the urgency of the task for us all— and the immense opportunity that is ahead for us and our families,—-if we can tap in.
It is well worth the time to read, and a great primer of the complex time we all face. The Notes section at the end of the book double underlines the work ahead, and easily makes the price of the book a great investment in our collective future, where ever we live.
I cannot imagine a more interesting time to be alive and charting a new path ahead.
Jim McGibney
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