Review of
Instaread
Summary of The Industries of the Future: by Alec Ross
Two out of five stars
In terms of
what industries are listed as those of the future in this summary, the list
would have largely been the same about fifteen years ago. The first item listed
in the key takeaways, the Human Genome project, took years to complete and is
one technology where the promise was obvious and discussed decades ago. Second
on the list is robotics, another subject that has been a major topic of
discussion for some time. The famous three laws of robotics put forward by
science writer Isaac Asimov appeared in 1942.
Other major new
industries mentioned are cryptocurrencies, Big Data and cybersecurity. Again,
nothing here that has not been around for some time. Societies where nearly all
monetary transactions are electronic have been a staple of science fiction (Star
Trek is the most obvious example) since the seventies. Furthermore, trillions
of dollars of money are regularly transferred electronically and these are of
course encrypted. Malicious software or malware have been a problem in
computing for almost thirty years now.
Given that the
topics, at least those that appear in this summary, are not new, I am reluctant
to consider reading the book. For the follower of changes in technology will
not likely find anything new in the book. There are two points, both of commission,
in this summary, that make me question the quality of the book, or at least the
summary.
The first is
key takeaway 2, where the topic is the increasing role that robots will play in
the economy of the future. There is the section “The great leap forward is not
new and complex artificial intelligence, but rather communication devices that
allow robots to access the internet or cloud computing servers, which can
replace the need for artificial intelligence.” Whether the instructions that
control a robot are stored internally or through the internet, they are still
instructions. Therefore, this is just wrong, improved performance of robots,
whether they are used in industry or to control cars, require more
sophisticated artificial intelligence.
The second
point is key takeaway number seven. “In this century it will be increasingly
difficult for government bureaucracies to regulate the emerging digital
economy.” This is also almost certainly wrong, the current legal battle between
Apple and the government is over whether Apple will be required to create a
backdoor that will defeat the hard encryption on Apple devices. If this is
done, then it is likely that governments will be able to track your every move.
Authoritarian governments such as that of Iran and the People’s Republic of
China have no trouble controlling their digital economies and if they have the
power to defeat device encryption then the situation will become Orwellian.
For these
reasons, I was unimpressed by both the summary and the book that it describes.
This book was made available for free for review purposes.
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