"The New Digital Age"

 I have read "The New Digital Age" by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen.

 It paints a picture of countries, revolutions, and the future of conflicts spearheaded by the Fifth Estate, otherwise known as the Internet, not as a fantastic story, but as a true premonition of the future.

 

 In 10 years, the virtual human population will exceed that of the actual human population living on Earth, the citizens of that virtual human population will become unable to control their personal information in cyberspace, and these will cause effects on the real world. Governments will strengthen surveillance measures and impose restrictions on technology and their use, for reasons such as maintaining public order and preventing unlawful transactions. This will apply no matter whether they are democratic or dictatorial. With regulations by governments in place, the Internet will be mish-mash of the webs of various countries, and balkanization will occur.

 This is what the book explains. I believe that one's online ID will matter more than one's offline ID in the future, and that the surveillance carried out by countries will increase whether or not it is effective. Differences in the approaches taken by different countries will result in pandemonium. We can already see it in the varying models adopted by China, Turkey, and Germany. This will probably just accelerate if Google and other global enterprises do not reach an agreement with the governments of nations around the world. What should we think of these observations by Mr. Schmidt from Google?

 

 The book says that although Bin Laden concealed himself in Pakistan for 5 years without the use of phones or the Internet, this is the precise reason for the discovery of his exact hiding place: a huge mansion in the city that did not have communication lines laid out to it. The offline world is no longer safe anymore.

Will the Internet bring about more revolutions? Will drones and 3D printers contribute to more terrorism? Will there be more government policies concerning the virtual segregation of minorities? Will robots replace humans as soldiers? This book also asks these questions.

 

 Our group has teamed up with Stanford University to form an "IT Policy Research Association" to debate policies for the future. We hope to consider what should be done, with inspiration from the points of discussion offered by this text.