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

 
　　生成式AI，和各種科技的創新應用，能夠增加受雇者的生產力，減輕工作負擔，創造更好的生活品質嗎？科技巨頭絕對可以因為新技術和新產品，而獲得更多的財富！但許多人開始擔心自動化的趨勢，將為基層帶來更嚴重的失業問題，機器更全面地取代人力，會不會導致薪資停滯不前，讓受雇者成為長期受剝削的一群？
 
　　兩位麻省理工學院教授，帶讀者一起關注這個與我們的切身相關的重要議題！綜觀古今千年的大歷史，探究科技、經濟、權力和社會福祉交錯的角力關係，呼籲所有人審慎評估當前的現況，齊心為「共享繁榮」鋪設一條可能的路徑。
 
　　回溯千年歷史，新技術未必能為勞動階級帶來好處。例如：中世紀歐洲改良的農業技術，讓貴族和神職人員從中受益，但農民仍生活在貧困中。但也有較樂觀的例子，如：二次世界大戰後，因有強大的工會、政府嚴格監管下，勞動階級並沒有因為工廠引進新的自動化設備而淪為犧牲者，反而改善了工作環境，幫助勞動者的技能、生產力和工資升級。
 
　　新科技、新技術，有可能讓財富更加集中，但也可能是創建下一個繁榮盛世的契機。鬥爭還是共榮？國家社會、政府法令、企業和民眾，沒有人應該置身事外。(文/博客來編譯)
 
好評推薦：

• 「如果你還沒有讀過兩位作者之前的書，那麼《權力與進步》肯定會讓你成為他們的書迷……強大的新技術是否能使我們受益？一百五十年前，工業革命是否為我們曾祖父母那一輩的人帶來幸福？現在人工智慧能否為我們帶來更多幸福？閱讀它，享受它，然後選擇你的生活方式！」。

——賈德．戴蒙，《槍炮、病菌與鋼鐵》作者、普立茲獎得主

• 「科技正顛覆我們所知的世界——自動化取代人工，加深了不平等；假訊息和監管機制，已威脅到民主！不過兩位作者也指出，事情並非無可挽回……我們只需要慎重地選擇。這本深富人文關懷和希望的書，顯示採用新科技，但同時兼顧公眾利益，是可行的方案。任何關心數位時代民主將何去何從的人，都應該要閱讀這本書。」

——《正義：一場思辨之旅》作者邁可‧桑德爾

Awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics, Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson overturn conventional wisdom about how economies work--revealing the untold story of who wins and who loses the rewards of prosperity--in a work that fundamentally transforms how we look at and understand the world.

Throughout history, technological change -- whether it takes the form of agricultural improvements in the Middle Ages, the Industrial Revolution, or today’s artificial intelligence -- has been viewed as a main driver of prosperity, working in the public interest. The reality, though, is that technology is shaped by what powerful people want and believe, generating riches, social respect, cultural prominence, and further political voice for those already powerful. For most of the rest of us, there is the illusion of progress.

Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson debunk modern techno-optimism through a dazzling, original account of how technological choices have changed the course of history. From vivid stories of how the economic surplus of the Middle Ages was appropriated by an ecclesiastical elite to build cathedrals while the peasants starved, to the making of vast fortunes from digital technologies today as millions are pushed towards poverty, we see how the path of technology is determined and who influences its trajectory.

To achieve the true potential of innovation, we need to ensure technology is creating new jobs and opportunities rather than marginalizing most people, through automated work and political passivity. We need to use the tremendous digital advances of the last half century to create useful and empowering tools, and seize back control from a small elite of hubristic, messianic tech leaders pursuing
their own interests.

With their breakthrough economic theory and manifesto for building a better society, Acemoglu and Johnson provide the understanding and vision to reimagine and reshape the path of technology and create true shared prosperity.

DARON ACEMOGLU is Institute Professor of Economics at MIT, the university’s highest faculty honor. For the last twenty-five years, he has been researching the historical origins of prosperity, poverty, and the effects of new technologies on economic growth, employment, and inequality. Acemoglu is the recipient of several awards and honors, including the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded to economists under forty judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge (2005); the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in economics, finance, and management for his lifetime contributions (2016), and the Kiel Institute’s Global Economy Prize in economics (2019). He is author (with James Robinson) of The Narrow Corridor and the New York Times bestseller Why Nations Fail.

SIMON JOHNSON is the Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Sloan School at MIT, where he is also head of the Global Economics and Management group. Previously chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, he has worked on global economic crises and recoveries for thirty years. Johnson has published more than 300 high-impact pieces in leading publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and Financial Times. He is author (with Jon Gruber) of Jump-Starting America, and (with James Kwak) of White House Burning and the national bestseller 13 Bankers. He works with entrepreneurs, elected officials, and civil society organizations around the world.