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Exponential
Exponential
May 20, 2024 8:31 AM

Author:Azeem Azhar

Exponential

The Times and Financial Times Book of the Year

'Enticing' Sunday Times | 'Engaging' Financial Times | 'Essential' Reid Hoffman

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As technology accelerates, the human mind struggles to keep up - and our companies, workplaces and democracies get left behind. This is the exponential gap.

Now, a leading technologist explores how this exponential gap is rewiring our world - and reveals how we should respond.

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'The sheer might of technology giants is one of the great challenges of our time . . . Azeem Azhar's excellent book Exponential offers some solutions' Amol Rajan, BBC News

'Azhar has a knack for interrogating and inverting conventional thinking . . . A convincing case that something extraordinary is taking place in business and society' Economist

'Deft and clear-eyed . . . Perhaps Azhar's most valuable insight is that conservatively managing the individual risks posed by new technologies will not suffice'Financial Times

'Speaks powerfully about how we need to shape technology to put it back in the service of society' Guardian

'Valuable and timely . . . A diligent and comprehensive definition of a new phase in human affairs' Sunday Times

Reviews

Valuable and timely . . . The importance of the book lies in its diligent and comprehensive definition of a new phase in human affairs . . . An enticing and necessary read.

—— Sunday Times

As a primer on our latest multi-dimensional technological revolution and how it is rewriting the rules of society, economics and politics, this book is hard to beat.

—— Books of the Year , Financial Times

The exponentially growing mismatch between the tools available to democracies and the sheer might of technology giants is one of the great challenges of our time . . . Azeem Azhar's excellent book Exponential offers some solutions.

—— Amol Rajan , BBC News

As high-tech innovation accelerates in ways that deliver huge benefits to society but also create unique challenges, Azeem Azhar delivers a comprehensive but lively take on the key issues informing what he calls the Exponential Age. It's an essential addition to the ongoing discourse about where these remarkable new technologies can take us, and where we should be aiming to go. Highly recommended!

—— Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and author of BLITZSCALING

While many talk about the rate of innovation, too few talk about its direction. Azeem's new book helps bring that directionality to the surface through a dynamic understanding of the connections between economic, social and technological forces. Read this book if you are interested in how we can design a more inclusive and sustainable system with a re-direction of technological change at its centre.

—— Mariana Mazzucato, UCL professor and author of THE VALUE OF EVERYTHING and MISSION ECONOMY

A sweeping, engaging, nuanced, and ultimately conflicted look at how recent innovations in computing and other emerging technologies have radically transformed human existence, with consequences that we can hardly fathom . . . A deft and clear-eyed treatment of complex issues such as globalisation and the future of automation . . . Perhaps Azhar's most valuable insight is that conservatively managing the individual risks posed by new technologies will not suffice.

—— Financial Times

Azeem Azhar is one of the best-regarded thought leaders in the industry. But more importantly, he has a broad understanding of the exponential ways technology can be used to solve our biggest problems, shape our society, and bridge cultural divides.

—— Daniel Ek, founder and CEO of Spotify

Azeem Azhar is a globally recognised voice on technology and its impact. He has written a fascinating and important book, required reading for anyone seeking to understand the new economy and the massive global corporations that seek to dominate that economy.

—— Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive, Royal Society of Arts

Azhar is unapologetically bullish about the power of technology . . . He speaks powerfully about how we need to shape technology to put it back in the service of society.

—— Guardian

Brilliant.

—— Anil Seth, author of BEING YOU

Every generation fears technology is changing frighteningly fast. Usually it is hyperbole, the fear of the unknown. But today technological shifts are posing challenges to our security, our democracies, our way of life, our sanity. Azeem Azhar's brilliant book demystifies these exponentially fast changes and - importantly - shows how the chronic volatility can be harnessed for good. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how to reclaim a good society from the snapping jaws of looming chaos.

—— Robert Peston

We are living through a period of unprecedented technological change . . . Exponential offers a new framework for understanding the impact of technology on the economy, politics and the future.

—— Forbes

A powerful argument . . . Azhar's writing is informative and accessible, and his prescient ideas are only going to become more important.

—— Hannah Fry, BBC Radio 4 presenter and author of HELLO WORLD

A details-rich journey from the discovery of the first transistor in 1947 to the arrival of TikTok.

—— Reuters

Azhar has a knack for interrogating and inverting conventional thinking . . . A convincing case that something extraordinary is taking place in business and society.

—— Economist

A celebration of the world-changing impact of computing technologies . . . Azhar meticulously and smartly makes his case.

—— MIT Technology Review

Excellent.

—— Forbes

A tremendous new book which has far-reaching implications.

—— Ian Goldin, Founding Director, University of Oxford Martin School

As a primer on our latest multi-dimensional technological revolution and how it is rewriting the rules of society, economics and politics, this book is hard to beat.

—— Books of the Year , Financial Times

How tech companies conquered the world and how their thirst for endless growth shapes the way they operate . . . Heralds an eventful, if rather alarming, new phase in human history.

—— Books of the Year , The Times

Amazing facts . . . I highly recommend it.

—— Sebastian Mallaby

George Monbiot is one of the most fearless and important voices in the global climate movement today

—— Greta Thunberg

I used to look up to the stars for thoughts of infinity, eternity and divine cooperation. This book revealed to me I could find the same inspiration beneath the soles of my feet in less than a foot of soil. My walks on earth will never be the same as they were. The writing, observation and devotion is infectiously compelling. The learning is deep and immense

—— Mark Rylance

A magnificent new overview of how we might live and feed ourselves without destroying ourselves ... It is riveting ... Along with a dazzling array of stats, there's also impressive investigative reporting ... rich food for thought, devastating figures, startling insights and even the odd joke ... A hugely important read

—— Christopher Hart , The Sunday Times

A call to raze the pastoral imaginary so that we can begin to think clearly about how we produce food and steward the soil ... To have any chance of turning the age of extinction into an age of regeneration, systemic reform, based on the facts, not pastoral myth-making, is essential

—— Philippa Nuttall , New Statesman

Colossally important... You've got to read it

—— Max Porter (via Twitter)

A treasure trove of hope and solutions, and a vision for a sustainable, healthy, equitable world. We meet inspiring farmers as well as some radical solutions ... Comprehensive, devastating, rousing ... An essential book

—— Rowan Hooper , New Scientist

Big ideas, beautifully written and the portraits of people building the alternatives are gorgeous! Makes you angry and enraptured with the beauty of the natural world all at once

—— Aaron Bastani (via Twitter)

A paean to the wonder that is the ecology of soil, scientifically informed and beautifully told. The perfect bank holiday read

—— Yadvinder Malhi, Professor of Ecosystem Science at the University of Oxford

Phenomenal. Clear, eloquent, fearless and devastating in its analysis. A revolution in the future of food

—— Adam Rutherford (via Twitter)

Glorious ... intelligent, deeply researched .... The point Monbiot makes so ably and so necessarily is that system change is both essential and possible through a complexity of solutions ... The stakes could not be higher. If a book can change hearts and minds about one of the most critical issues of our time, this rational, humane polemic is it

—— Gaia Vince , Observer

Revolutionary ... Rigorous, bold and clear-sighted ... To conjure the miracle of more food with less farming, we need to rethink what lies beneath our feet

—— David Farrier , Prospect

Vivid and memorable... Regenesis is a compelling, deeply researched account of a deeply broken food system and how we might heal it

—— Irish Times

A compelling story of soil, food and farming

—— Financial Times

Ambitious and deeply researched ... Monbiot exposes, with journalistic flair, the 'gulf between perception and reality' about where and how our food is produced ... it includes some fascinating case studies ... bristling with ideas and imagination

—— Laura Battle , Financial Times

Eye-opening, persuasive, meticulously researched [...] Monbiot thinks globally [... and] his arguments take account of the needs of everyone in society

—— Amy Liptrot , Guardian

A paean to soil, told more gracefully and memorably than anyone before him... Regenesis is likely to become a classic. Monbiot is a writer of the first rank

—— Bill McKibben , Times Literary Supplement

Inspiring, courageous, and bursting with ideas

—— Jeremy Williams , The Earthbound Report
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