Are We An”Overconnected Society”? Watch Future Talk, Thursday July 12 at 12:30 PM
This episode features an interview with Bill Davidow (www.davidow.com), author of the recent book “Overconnected: The promise and threat of the Internet”. The book, which has received high praise from many of Silicon Valley’s top luminaries, argues that despite its many benefits, the Internet also poses huge risks. Davidow argues that the constantly accelerating speed at which information can be moved can have a destabilizing effect on society, and even lead to catastrophic consequences if the issue is not addressed. He cites as an example the economic sphere, where computerized stock trading programs trade billions of dollars in the blink of an eye, with no manual controls and no knowledge of the underlying companies, which it treats as mere statistical objects. He says that this ability to move huge quantities of wealth at lightning speed with no regard for human beings is what enabled many of our recent financial disasters. He also discusses the potential perils of social networking programs, the easy spread of addictive vices such as gambling, and our general overdependence on the Internet and the risks of catastrophic system failure.
Bill Davidow is a long time veteran of Silicon Valley. He’s a former senior vice president of marketing and sales at Intel, and also served as vice president of Intel’s microcomputer division, where he led the group that established the 8086 architecture as the industry standard. He co-founded the well known venture capital firm of Mohr Davidow, and has written several other books, including “The Virtual Corporation”. He currently serves on the board of directors of several major institutions, including the California Institute of Technology (www.caltech.edu) and the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center (www.ucsfhealth.org).
Martin Wasserman hosts.