Today’s tech platforms are some of history''s most advanced tools for extracting as much as possible – data, attention, profit-margins – from everyone else. As they become essential, we are at risk of building an economy that is perpetually unfair for much of humanity.
Places and spaces where people can exchange information and goods have been at the heart of every economy and every civilization in history, but today’s global platforms - as provided by Amazon, Google, Apple, Meta and others - are different: instead of providing value they extract it, creating vast disparities in wealth and power between the haves and have-nots. For the first time in history, we have the ability to create sustainable prosperity for all, but currently that wealth is concentrated in a tiny number of hands. It isn''t abundance that''s the problem; it is distribution.
In this brilliantly engaging, frequently surprising account, Tim Wu, one of the world’s foremost experts on anti-monopoly law, draws on fascinating case studies in the history of technology''s explosive rise to demonstrate emphatically that breaking monopolies will ultimately unleash creativity and growth - and reduce the vast inequality that inevitably leads to social upheaval and political chaos. Wu also sets out an alternative blueprint that preserves the economic flourishing that platforms catalyze, allowing tech platforms to play a major role in creating and sustaining an economic model of prosperity not just for the few but for the many.
Today s dominant tech platforms are the most effective tools ever created for extracting wealth, destabilising the societies they plunder by creating vast inequality. One of the world's pre-eminent anti-monopoly experts explains how and why we must take back control.
'Wu is a titan . . . a must-read' FINANCIAL TIMES
'Cuts to the core' CORY DOCTOROW, author of Enshittification
'Essential' KAREN HAO, author of Age of Empire
Our world is ruled by a handful of tech platforms. They provide great conveniences and entertainment but also stand as some of the most effective instruments of wealth extraction ever invented, seizing immense amounts of money, data and attention from all of us. An economy driven by tech and AI could enrich us, yet it could also marginalize entire industries, widen the wealth gap and foster a two-class nation. As technology evolves and our markets adapt, can society cultivate a better way? Is it possible to balance economic growth and egalitarianism, or are we too late?
Tim Wu, the preeminent scholar and former White House official who coined the phrase net neutrality , tells the story of an internet that promised widespread wealth and democracy, only to aid the spread of autocracy instead. From generative AI and predictive social data to antitrust and cryptocurrency, Wu frames our current moment within key lessons from recent history. And, perhaps most importantly of all, Wu envisions a future where technological advances serve the greatest possible good for everyone.
Concise and hopeful, The Age of Extraction offers consequential proposals for reclaiming control to achieve better economic balance and prosperity for all.
'A passionate call for a fairer economy' DARON ACEMOGLU, co-author of Why Nations Fail
'A how-to book on how we can achieve liberty' MATT STOLLER, author of Goliath
Not Stated
Vintage Publishing
