The New Digital Age

Dissapointment

Dissapointment, expected much more. Book is mostly about authors' need to explain future of countries, wars, terrorism, politics, restructuring... While it starts with promising ideas, it turns into political pamflet against totalitarian regimes, with emphasises on stories which I already heard in past years.

Also, it is interesting that while authors spend hundreds of pages on these problems, they manage to escape from criticising big technological corporations, or even delve into potential problems which are already apparent and will become worse.

8 of 9 people found this review helpful

Biased, big Americanism

Kept rumbling on terrorism and how America fights terrorism, the author position America as the holy country and demonize other countries, such as Iraq, Iran, China, North Korea. Fit right into the labels traditional Western media places on those countries.

Of those things the author accused these countries of, such as cyber attacks, etc, I'm sure the US and Western Countries have done all those things too. The author did not mention any of that - he kept placing the US on high moral grounds...such ideals would be outdated in today's world.

Biased and arrogant book. A waste of money and pollutes understand of the world.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

Facts

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would have to say no I could not recommend this book to a friend. Unless I wanted to bore them to tears....

It really reads like Eric just dictating a whole load of thoughts out, then these have been transcribed into a book. Further to this it feels like Eric just wanted to punch out a book because he can..

What was most disappointing about Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen ’s story?

It does not really read like a story, its just read like a point based fact book. Yes some subjects are quite interesting but overall I would not read another book from Eric.

What three words best describe Roger Wayne’s voice?

Good, though I feel the content of the book did not lend itself to a good audible title.

Do you think The New Digital Age needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No thanks

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Connected? You soon will be...

Clearly a book co-authored by the Google CEO carries much weight for anyone interested in the Internet and the World Wide Web. However the authors' point is that soon everyone on the planet will be connected; that all must consider the implications of this connectedness.

They describe a visit to post war Iraq noticing the devastation and lack of basic services but also noticing a high take-up of mobile phones. The authors consider developments in Africa where the slow "first world" incremental development of Internet connection will likely be bypassed with a jump from landline phones to smart mobiles.

It would be interesting to see how a second edition might address the recent revelations about NSA / "Prism" monitoring of communications. However the authors do discuss the relative ineffectiveness of Facebook security settings in the light of a concerted desire to view your data by a government or lawyer, for example. They also discuss the issue of data permanence; both in terms of the inability of computers to effectively delete something you may want hidden, and in terms of our life history on social media being preserved for future educators or employers to see. The authors make the point that electors were less bothered whether a potential president had "smoked but not inhaled". In the future, will we just be more tolerant of public figures' unpleasant social media histories? How will potential future educators or employers regard our unpleasant social media histories?

The authors spend a large amount of time considering the importance of social media within revolutions and the work of NGOs. They consider the fall of President Mubarak of Egypt, for example, which was likely hastened by switching off the entire Internet and phone network, in an attempt to silence social media protesters, but which sent them out onto the streets to protest instead. For me the most important part of this book was the authors' views on the connectivity of NGOs. The authors consider how individuals will likely consider where to donate their money according to the Internet face of a particular NGO; meaning the success of a charity to raise funds could depend more on their social media skills than their efficiency in distributing aid. For the authors, establishing or rebuilding a mobile network should be considered an important aid activity alongside those traditionally considered important in emergency situations. They consider the example of the Haitian earthquake in how re-establishing and using the mobile network contributed to initial disaster relief.

The narration is fine, although occasionally a potential paragraph or chapter break is missed and the narrator powers on into a new topic without so much as taking a breath.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

I expected more.

This doesn't feel like a deep look into the future. For the majority of the book the authors simply extend the technologies of today into a future that is faster and more connected.

Good things and bad things will happen in the reshaped future of people, nations and business. Good people and bad people will become more connected leading to good consequences and bad consequences. Good governments and bad governments will need to consider how to deal with things and will do so in good and bad ways. Good things and bad things will happen faster and this will be good and bad.

It's not a good book or a bad book; it's just disappointingly bland.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

A preview on things to come

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, but only if I know that they are very into technology and what the future will bring. Mainly advocating communications technologies and how the people who arent connected will use it. Also what revolutions to expect and how they will improve the quality of life for the bottom 30% of the world

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The part about charity and how it is going to evolve. From being mostly about getting notice to becoming more of a marketing war. How people in desperate need of donation and charity still value pride. Why that fact keeps some of the charity organisations alive in a world with P2P donations could make for quicker and cheaper help

Any additional comments?

Interesting book for anyone interested in knowing how the bio metrical information is going to change anonymity, verification, and information gathering. How it can be used for both good and evil, oppression and justice, depending largely on who and how it is used

I liked it a lot but if you arent into communication technologies its going to be a dry one

A good overview

Where does The New Digital Age rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

In the top half, but not the very best. This is a good overview of developments that we can reasonably expect with increasingly sophisticated technology.

What other book might you compare The New Digital Age to, and why?

I have not read anything directly similar to The New Digital Age. It is in some ways similar to The Second Machine Age (MacAfee and Brynjolfsson), but it focused much less on the future of work and was much more concerned with how governments will conduct their business in the future and with how foreign affairs will be reshaped by changing technology.

Have you listened to any of Roger Wayne’s other performances? How does this one compare?

I have not. The performance was fine, but there were odd moments when there would be a pause which didn't fit with the flow of the text followed by a rushed sentence to catch up again. I think this was the result of the recording, not the reading.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I listened to this book in three sessions (over a couple plane journeys). It is not a difficult read. There is a fair amount of information to think about after finishing the book, but I didn't not have to stop often to think about things. I found it most helpful to listen to the whole thing and then to think about it in more detail and discuss it with people.

Good observations, but not particularly futuristic.

Overall this is well informed and well narrated but feels more like a collection of current observations than really looking into the future.

Takes a long time for very few ideas

There are one or two common themes throughout this book, but I really struggled to remain engaged - it became more of a challenge to get to the end rather than being hungry for the next idea to come about.
For a balanced view on the future, I would go to the Economist 2050 Megachange instead

So very boring

I've given up after an hour and a half. Whilst I'm sure this would interest some people, I like to listen to books that I can personally learn from whereas this, at least over the first 90 minutes, is an academic report on the state of connectivity around the world and is exactly as interesting as that sounds.
I have huge respect for the authors - indeed that was why I bought the title - but the subject matter and delivery simply didn't hold my interest.