The Industries of the Future
The Industries of the Future is a 2016 non-fiction book written by Alec Ross, an American technology policy expert and the former Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her time as Secretary of State. The book explores the forces that will change the world in robotics, genetics, digital currency, coding and big data. The editors for the book were Jonathan Karp and Jonathan Cox of Simon & Schuster.
Overview
The book explores several industries including robotics, genetics, coding and big data. Ross explores how advances in robotics and life sciences will change the way we live—robots, artificial intelligence and machine learning will have impact on our lives. According to Ross, dramatic advances in life sciences will increase our life expectancy—but not all will benefit from such changes. Ross spends time exploring "Code" and how the codefication of money and also weapons will both benefit and potentially disrupt our international economies. Ross also looks at how data will be "the raw material of the information age".Ross discusses the shift of robotics from being manual and repetitive to cognitive and non-repetitive. He believes that breakthroughs in mathematical modeling and cloud robotics make robotics acceptable. In the book Ross describes how other cultures have different reactions to robotics and he uses Japan's use of robotics in elder-care as an example. He also expects that less developed countries may be able to leapfrog technologies in robotics much like they did with cell and mobile technologies.