WHAT IS THE FUTURE AND WHY IT IS UP TO US

Tim O'Reilly 

Random House Business Books UK 

Penguin Random House UK 

First Published in 2017 

Paperback edition published in 2018 

ISBN: 9781847941862

376 Pages (Without Index) 

419 Pages (With Index)

£ 9.99 

The blurb about the book starts as follows:

"O'Reilly is "the man who can really make a whole industry happen," according to Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Alphabet (Google.)"

Renowned as "the Oracle od Silicon Valley" Tim O'Reilly has spent three decades exploring the world-transforming power of information technology. Now the leading thinker of the internet age turns his eye to the future - and asks the questions that will frame the next stage of the digital revolution:

* Will increased automation destroy jobs or create new opportunities?

* What will the company of tomorrow look like?

* Is a world dominated by algorithms to be welcomed or feared?

* How can we ensure that technology serves people, rather than the other way around?

* How can we all become better at mapping future trends?

The book consists of four parts: Part I: Using the Right Maps, Part II: Platform Thinking, Part III: A World Ruled by Algorithms and Part IV: It's Up To Us

I would like to quote some parts that I found especially important and worth mentioning:

"We must keep asking: What will new technology let us do that was previosuly impossible? Will it help us build the kind of society we want to live in?"

"For everyone's sake, we must choose a different path. 

Loss of jobs and economic disruption are not inevitable. There is a profound failure of imagination and will in much of today's economy. For every Elon Musk - who wants to reinvent the world's energy infrastructure, build revolutionary new forms of transport, ans settle humans on Mars - there are far too many companies that are simply using technology to cut costs and boost their stock price, enriching those able to invest in financial markets at the expense of an ever-growing group that may never be able to do so. Policy makers seem helpless, assuming that the course of technology is inevitable, rather than something we must shape."

I had read and followed the ideas of some Turkish futurists like Ufuk Tarhan and Alphan Manas before. Of course Elon Musk is an internationally famous futurist that I know. These are all visionary and optimistic supporters of futurism and that's a good thing. Tim O'Reilly on the other hand grasps a versatile point of view about the future which makes us think about the advantages and disadvantages of the futuristic thinking and the role of technology it will/should or should not play in people's everyday lives. I like this kind of point of view which is objective making it possible to evaluate the situation without taking sides. 

Book Review: Nilüfer Şen