The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business

Advance praise for The New Digital Age
    “This is the most important—and fascinating—book yet written about how the digital age will affect our world. With vivid examples and brilliant analysis, it shows how the internet and other communications technologies will empower individuals and transform the way nations and businesses operate. How will different societies make trade-offs involving privacy, freedom, control, security and the relationship between the physical and virtual worlds? This realistic but deeply optimistic book provides the guideposts. It’s both profoundly wise and wondrously readable.”
    —Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs
    “Every day, technological innovations are giving people around the world new opportunities to shape their own destinies. In this fascinating book, Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen draw upon their unique experiences to show us a future of rising incomes, growing participation and a genuine sense of community— if we make the right choices today.”
    —Bill Clinton
    “Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen have produced a searching meditation on technology and world order. Even those who disagree with some of their conclusions will learn much from this thought-provoking volume.”
    —Henry A. Kissinger
    “This is the book I have been waiting for: a concise and persuasive description of technology’s impact on war, peace, freedom and diplomacy. The New Digital Age is a guide to the future written by two experts who possess a profound understanding of humanity’s altered prospects in a wireless world. There are insights on every page and surprising conclusions (and questions) in every chapter. For experts and casual readers alike, Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen have produced an indispensable book.”
    —Madeleine Albright
    “ The New Digital Age is must-reading for anyone who wants to truly understand the depths of the digital revolution. Combining the skills of a social scientist and a computer scientist, Schmidt and Cohen blend the technical and the human, the scientific and the political, in ways I rarely saw while in government. They challenge the reader’s imagination on almost every page.”
    —General Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA
    “This is a book that describes a technological revolution in the making. How we navigate it is a challenge for countries, communities and citizens. There are no two people better equipped to explain what it means than Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen.”
    —Tony Blair
    “Few people in the world are doing more to imagine—and build—the new digital age than Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen. With this book, they are looking into their crystal ball and inviting the world to peek in.”
    —Michael R. Bloomberg
    “Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen’s thoughtful, well-researched work elucidates the staggering impact of technology on our daily lives, as well as what surprising and incredible developments the future may hold. Readers might be left with more questions than answers, but that’s the idea—we are at our best when we ask ‘What’s next?’ ”
    —Elon Musk, cofounder of Tesla Motors and PayPal



THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
    Copyright © 2013 by Google Inc. and Jared Cohen
    All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
    www.aaknopf.com
    Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress
eBook ISBN: 9780307961105
Hardcover ISBN: 9780307957139
    Cover design by Peter Mendelsund
    v3.1

For Rebecca, to whom we are grateful for her ideas and support, and Aiden, of whom we are envious for the technology he will get to see

We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there.
    —C HARLES F. K ETTERING ,
American inventor and businessman

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    This book is the product of nearly three years of collaboration, but it would not have been possible without the incredibly generous commitments made by close friends, family and colleagues.
    First and foremost, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to Sophie Schmidt, who served as our internal editor on the book for ten months and was a critical partner in its writing. Sophie’s gifted mind, strategic insights and analytical heft helped make the ideas come alive.