The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business, by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen, John Murray RRP￡25/Knopf RRP$26.95, 336 pages
Can the internet really save the world? That may be an exaggeration of the claims made in The New Digital Age, but not by much. Written by Google chairman Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen, head of the search company’s in-house think-tank, it lays out a mainly optimistic case for why the world’s tyrants should tremble in the face of universal internet access.
If there’s a single belief that underpins the book, it is summed up in this sentence: “Generally speaking, connectivity encourages and enables altruistic behaviour.” Most people, argue the authors, are moderates and reject the extremism that can destabilise societies: just let them connect to others like themselves and the world will be a better place. “The best thing anyone can do to improve the quality of life around the world is to drive connectivity and technological opportunity,” they conclude.