Bill gates was quoted in Forbes today predicting a new industrial revolution. [link]. This is in his review of Robert Gordon’s new book. I agree with Bill and if you’d like to know more about the Robert Gordon (old school, grey hair, suit and tie – 1945-1980 view of business) and the post-internet view of progress have a read of my primer here [link].
Bill gates points out three key examples as Robotics, A cure for Alzheimers and Material science. I like the way he boils it down so simply. I was influenced by books in my youth including Alvin Toffler’s future shock which I read 30 years ago, it was already a classic then [link] (Poor Alvin died last month), books by Robert Beckman [link], Edward de Bono[Link] and James Dale Davidson [Link].
I think there are two books that anyone should read if they want to prepare for the next big trends:
Industries of the Future, Alex Ross [Link]
Second Machine Age, Brynjolfsson & McAfee [Link]
Image by Kyle Bean