The New Digital Age

In an unparalleled collaboration, two leading global thinkers in technology and foreign affairs give us their widely anticipated, transformational vision of the future: a world where everyone is connected--a world full of challenges and benefits that are ours to meet and harness. Eric Schmidt is one of Silicon Valley's great leaders, having taken Google from a small start-up to one of the world's most influential companies. Jared Cohen is the director of Google Ideas and a former adviser to both secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton; he was instrumental in helping shape the way the U.S. government thinks about technology. Schmidt and Cohen have traveled the world--from the hot spots of the Middle East and Africa to the more stable European and Asian nations--meeting with world leaders, entrepreneurs, and activists to see and hear firsthand about the challenges they face. With the authors' combined knowledge and on-the-ground experiences, they are uniquely positioned to take on some of the toughest questions about our future: Who will be more powerful in the future, the citizen or the state? Will technology make terrorism easier or harder to carry out? What is the relationship between privacy and security, and how much will we have to give up to be part of the new digital age? How will war, diplomacy, and revolution change when everyone is connected, and how can we tip the balance in a beneficial way? When broken societies are rebuilt, what will they be able to do with technology? In this groundbreaking book, Schmidt and Cohen combine observations about the physical world with their insights into our digital future to outline in great detail and scope all the promise and peril awaiting us in the coming decades. At once pragmatic and inspirational--and wholly fascinating--this is a forward-thinking account of where our world is headed and what this means for people, states, nations, and businesses.