Book cover of Influence Empire: Inside the Story of Tencent and China’s Tech Ambition by Lulu Chen
Business & Money

Influence Empire: Inside the Story of Tencent and China’s Tech Ambition

In 2017, a company known as Tencent overtook Facebook to become the world’s fifth largest company. It was a watershed moment, a wake-up call for those in the West accustomed to regarding the global tech industry through the prism of Silicon Valley: Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft.

Yet to many of the two billion-plus people who live just across the Pacific Ocean, it came as no surprise at all. […Learn More]

Book cover of The Right to Repair: Reclaiming the Things We Own by Aaron Perzanowski
Computers & Technology

The Right to Repair: Reclaiming the Things We Own

In The Right to Repair, Aaron Perzanowski analyzes the history of repair to show how we’ve arrived at this moment, when a battle over repair is being waged – largely unnoticed – in courtrooms, legislatures, and administrative agencies. With deft, lucid prose, Perzanowski explains the opaque and complex legal landscape that surrounds the right to repair and shows readers how to fight back. […Learn More]

Book cover of The Metaverse: And How It Will Revolutionize Everything by Matthew Ball
Artificial Intelligence & Robotics

The Metaverse: And How It Will Revolutionize Everything

From the leading theorist of the Metaverse comes the definitive account of the next internet: what the Metaverse is, what it will take to build it, and what it means for all of us.

The term “Metaverse” is suddenly everywhere, from the front pages of national newspapers and the latest fashion trends to the plans of the most powerful companies in history. It is already shaping the policy platforms of the US government, the European Union, and the Chinese Communist Party […Learn More]

Book cover of Pegasus: How a Spy in Your Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy by Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud
Computers & Technology

Pegasus: How a Spy in Your Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy 

Pegasus is widely regarded as the most effective and sought-after cyber-surveillance system on the market. The system’s creator, the NSO Group, a private corporation headquartered in Israel, is not shy about proclaiming its ability to thwart terrorists and criminals. “Thousands of people in Europe owe their lives to hundreds of our company employees,” NSO’s cofounder declared in 2019. This bold assertion may be true, at least in part, but it’s by no means the whole story. […Learn More]

Book cover of Team Human by Douglas Rushkoff
Artificial Intelligence & Robotics

Team Human

Team Human is a fiery distillation of preeminent digital theorist Douglas Rushkoff’s most urgent thoughts on civilization, technology, and human nature. In one hundred concise statements, he argues that we are essentially social creatures who achieve our greatest aspirations when we work together not as individuals. Yet today, an antihuman ethos has overtaken our society, undermining our ability to connect. […Learn More]

Book cover of The Next 500 Years: Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds by Christopher E. Mason
Astronomy & Space Science

The Next 500 Years: Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds

Introducing a 10-phase, 500-year vision for the future of space exploration, genetic engineering, and the human species—on Earth and on other planets.

As the only species aware that life on Earth has an expiration date, we have a moral duty to land on, to live on, and to extend life to other planets. […Learn More]

Book cover of Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now by Douglas Rushkoff
Computers & Technology

Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now

People spent the twentieth century obsessed with the future. We created technologies that would help connect us faster, gather news, map the planet, and compile knowledge. We strove for an instantaneous network where time and space could be compressed. Well, the future’s arrived. […Learn More]