Power and Progress

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.

Great book by leading economist on the impact of technology on labor and about the crucial importance of labor unions to assure that the returns of technology are shared with workers (and not only retained by capital owners)

The usual academic proficiency of the author, but kind of boring.

Este excelente libro que con ejemplos históricos e investigaciones relevantes nos muestra que la tecnología tiene el gran potencial de cerrar brechas si se usa de forma adecuada y se ponen las salvaguardas para que la mayoría de la población se beneficie de ellas, pero también nos muestra su lado oscuro y lo que pasa cuando la tecnología no se utiliza para aumentar la productividad de las personas, sino únicamente para reducir costes y aumentar la rentabilidad de una empresa.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Good

Leaving aside the last part of the book, plenty of suggestions and ideas from the author that might be more subjective than anything, the historical analysis side is pretty circumstanced and interesting. Accessible to most, it shouldn't be read in isolation, especially if you're interested in the subject, but rather being the beginning point of more in depth analysis of the current debate on technological regulations, through focused papers and academic work, even and particularly those who suggest opposite ideas from those of Acemoglu!

While I would happily give "Why Nations Fail" 4.5 stars, and "The Narrow Corridor" 3.5 stars, this book fails on all counts.Societal development (from a political and institutional angle and from community traditions and norms) can be illustrated using a wide ranging series of examples to illustrate communalities and differences.Where this book fails, howerver, is that neither 'technology' or 'progress' are used consistently which makes the use of supposedly illustrative examples a hotchpotch of anecdotes without explanatory power.

A postmortem of the thought of power as it is unfolding, changing its contours for the common people as well as those who wish to understand it but have no means to approach it.