Unsupervised: Navigating and Influencing a World Controlled by Powerful New Technologies - Hardcover

by Daniel Doll-Steinberg (Author), Stuart Leaf (Author)

How a broad range of new immensely powerful technologies is disrupting and transforming every corner of our reality--and why you must act and adapt

Unsupervised: Navigating and Influencing a World Controlled by Powerful New Technologies examines the fast-emerging technologies and tools that are already starting to completely revolutionize our world. Beyond that, the book takes an in-depth look at how we have arrived at this dizzying point in our history, who holds the reins of these formidable technologies, mostly without any supervision. It explains why we as business leaders, entrepreneurs, academics, educators, lawmakers, investors or users and all responsible citizens must act now to influence and help oversee the future of a technological world. Quantum computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain, decentralization, virtual and augmented reality, and permanent connectivity are just a few of the technologies and trends considered, but the book delves much deeper, too. You'll find a thorough analysis of energy and medical technologies, as well as cogent predictions for how new tech will redefine your work, your money, your entertainment, your transportation and your home and cities, and what you need to know to harness and prosper from these technologies.

Authors Daniel Doll-Steinberg and Stuart Leaf draw on their decades of building and implementing disruptive technologies, investing and deploying funds, and advising business leaders, governments and supranational bodies on change management, the future of work, innovation and disruption, education and the economy to consider how every area of our lives, society, economy and government will likely witness incredible changes in the coming decade. When we look just a bit further into the future, we can see that the task facing us is to completely reinvent life as we know it--work, resources, war, and even humanity itself will undergo redefinition, thanks to these new and emerging tools. In Unsupervised, you'll consider what these redefinitions might look like, and how we as individuals, and part of society, can prevent powerful new technologies from falling into the wrong hands or be built to harm us.

• Get a primer on the foundational technologies that are reshaping business, pleasure, and life as we know it
• Learn about the lesser known, yet astonishing, technologies set to revolutionize medicine, agriculture, and beyond
• Consider the potential impact of new tech across business sectors--and what it means for you
• Gain the knowledge and inspiration you need to harness your own power and push the future in the direction of good for all of us not just the few
• Explore the best ways to invest in the changes these technologies of the future will bring about

This is a remarkably thorough and comprehensive look at the future of technology and everything it touches. Shining a light on many unsupervised technologies and their unsupervised oligarchy of masters.

Front Jacket

Information is power, and new technologies like AI, quantum computing, and virtual reality are multiplying the ways we can create, access, and use information. That means we're all becoming more powerful, especially the people who control these astounding technologies.

But there's a problem--those who hold the reins have been acting largely without supervision or oversight of any kind. Unsupervised: Navigating and Influencing a World Controlled by Powerful New Technologies is one of the first books to tackle this issue head on, addressing questions like:

• How did we arrive at this Cognitive Revolution in technology?
• Who are the major players shaping our future, and who will they answer to if things go wrong?
• What happens if powerful frontier technologies fall into the wrong hands, and can we stop that from happening?
• What steps can we take to stop being passive recipients of technology and instead influence the future direction of humanity?
• How can we leverage our resources to reinvent life as we know it to prosper in an AI-driven world?

These answers come in the form of clear descriptions of many of the disruptive technologies, providing readers with a thorough understanding of their potential significance. Authors and disruption experts Daniel Doll-Steinberg and Stuart Leaf also examine how these technologies, and the people behind them, are poised to revolutionize business, entertainment, medicine, agriculture -- almost everything we do.

The pace of technological evolution shows no signs of slowing its unprecedented acceleration. The risk we face is that unbridled tech development will have unintended and irreversible consequences. This book is a call to action for investors, businesspeople, politicians, and anyone interested in proactively building the future, for ourselves and generations to come.

Back Jacket

Praise for Unsupervised

"...A fascinating and compelling piece of work... the scale of thinking and force of argument are impressive. It is a serious undertaking and couldn't be more timely."
--James Harding, founder of Tortoise Media previously editor of The Times and the Director of BBC News

"A brilliant analysis and guide to the future world of disruptive frontier technologies, explaining how they work and will impact our lives. Forensic fun and future looking, it's a must for any futurologist."
--Sir Stuart Lipton, co-founder of Lipton Rogers Developments

"This book will appeal to most readers, and they should take note of its message. Every investor will want to review their portfolios and pipelines straight away after reading it."
--Anthony Scaramucci, Founder & Managing Partner, SkyBridge Capital

"A thoughtful and powerful compendium that we ought to consult frequently as we try to navigate our way to better understanding technology's issues and implications."
--Louis J. Forster, Chair, Johns Hopkins University Board of Trustees

"Unsupervised takes the reader through the quintessential questions of our time, with ethical dilemmas and thought-provoking ideas. A captivating "must-read" from board room to parliament, from student dorm to busy airport lounges."
--Chris Rynning, Managing Partner, AMYP, a Pi?h/Porsche family office

"An excellent primer on the consequences of disruptive technologies. Succinct summaries carefully crafted analyses. Both people and trends get due attention. I strongly commend its range and ambition."
--Professor Sir Anthony Finkelstein, President of City University of London, Fellow & Founder Trustee, The Alan Turing Institute and previously Chief Scientific Adviser for National Security, HM Government

Author Biography

DANIEL DOLL-STEINBERG, after a career in the early days of global derivatives technology industry, he created one of the first global standards for digital rights management, securing and delivering activation keys and content direct to customers, which helped transform the software industry. Specializing in disruptive technologies, he focused on Blockchain and AI, investing in and transforming real world products and companies with these transformative technologies and in 2017 cofounded the Atari Token Metaverse project. Daniel was appointed by the European Commission, and then the UK government, an expert advisor specializing in education, growth, disruption, and Future of Work policy.

STUART LEAF started his career at Merrill Lynch Capital Markets and Goldman Sachs. He held senior positions in smaller real estate, private equity, and asset management firms, before co-founding Cadogan Management, a Fund of Hedge Funds, in 1994. Investing around the world in a range of different strategies, including a significant exposure to technology, he and his partners grew the funds to $7.5 billion in assets.