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On the Brink of Utopia
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On the Brink of Utopia

Reinventing Innovation to Solve the World’s Largest Problems

Rafael Laguna de la Vera and Thomas Ramge
MIT Press, 2023
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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Analytical
  • Engaging
  • Inspiring

Recommendation

Is humanity living in a time of innovative breakthroughs, or are tech enthusiasts delusional? Authors Thomas Ramge and Rafael Laguna de la Vera explain why Silicon Valley’s evangelical discourse surrounding innovation, with its “Chief Innovation Officers” and “Heads of Design Thinking,” is often little more than public relations theater. Given the existential global risks the world faces, humanity can’t afford to merely play at innovation. The authors describe how to ensure a truly innovative future, calling on readers to disrupt the status quo and build a better world.

Summary

Humanity can plausibly enter an era of innovation if it meets five main conditions.

Contrary to popular belief, you may not be living in the most innovative time in history. Economists Tyler Cowen and Robert J. Gordon point to data that suggests that humanity experienced a much bigger wave of innovation between 1870 and 1970. During this period, technological breakthroughs such as electricity, the automobile, indoor plumbing, antibiotics and the telephone radically transformed human life. Innovations boosted productivity and sparked a shift from an agrarian economy to a service and industrial economy. 

Today, humanity is undergoing a shift to a knowledge economy, but the verdict is still out on whether the near future will be genuinely innovative. In his book The Innovation Delusion, Lee Vinsel points out that most of the technologies in the room with you were probably invented more than 50 years ago – an indicator that, perhaps, most of the innovation talk you hear from Silicon Valley companies is just that. In many ways, humanity is experiencing “innovation theater...

About the Authors

Thomas Ramge is the author of 20 books on technology, innovation and transformation, and the winner of numerous awards, including the getAbstract International Book Award, the Axiom Business Book Award and the Best Business Book Award on Innovation and Technology. Rafael Laguna de la Vera is an open-source pioneer and open-internet advocate who has worked with companies such as SUSE Linux and Open-Xchange. He is also the founding director of the Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation (SPRIND).

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