Foreword

Humanity has arrived in the information and knowledge society. Hardly have the many changes brought about by new technical and social inventions been digested when further developments appear on the horizon: the Internet of Things, Big Data, Data Science, intelligent robots, and self-driving cars with artificial intelligence.

• How should these technologies be assessed?
• What consequences will they have?

Many people are very skeptical here and fear that privacy and freedom are threatened by these new technologies. Typical headlines and book titles contain phrases such as “surveillance state”, “data octopuses”, and “they know everything about us”. Others have primarily economic fears and worry about the loss of jobs, a “digital turbo-capitalism”, or that internet corporations will take over world domination. Politicians, in turn, exploit these fears to advance their political and economic interests.

Therefore, information technology, the economy, and politics must be considered together. The topic is very broad because information technology influences many areas of life. To understand the limits of artificial intelligence, one must also know the limits of human intelligence. To be able to assess how dangerous misguided regulation can be, one needs basic knowledge of economics.

That is why this book explains fundamentals from many different fields and provides the basic knowledge for the new digital economy and society:

• data processing
• artificial intelligence
• economics
• digitization and its economic impact
• the bounded rationality of humans
• complex systems
• game theory
• the history of humanity
• the role of politics

The book is aimed at everyone and no special prior knowledge is required. After reading it, you will be able to look at the world and technological development from the perspective of “complex systems” and reassess the “risks”.

I wish all readers great enjoyment in reading and reflecting. I am very grateful for constructive comments by email.

Hamburg, March 2016

Jörn Dinkla, joern@dinkla.net

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Ruben J. Moor for his constructive criticism. I also thank my parents for their support.