Book & podcast collection

Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity

byDaron AcemogluandSimon Johnson

Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson examine a thousand years of technological change to challenge the assumption that innovation automatically creates shared prosperity. From medieval agriculture and industrial machinery to digital platforms and artificial intelligence, they show how benefits depend on institutions, worker power, political choices, and the direction inventors choose. Technologies can complement human labor and distribute gains, or automate work and concentrate control. The book argues that progress is a contested social outcome, calling for policies and public action that steer innovation toward broadly useful capabilities rather than elite enrichment and surveillance.

Publisher

PublicAffairs

Publication date

2023

Format

Print edition

Pages

—

ISBN

9781541702530