Transition Point: From Steam to the Singularity

Front Cover
Troubador Publishing Ltd, Nov 6, 2018 - Business & Economics - 710 pages

 We live in disruptive times. The world is changing faster than ever before, leaving people dazed, businesses struggling, economies floundering and societies fracturing. But why? Transition Point is the result of over five years of research to establish the answer; a breathtaking tale of freedom, unintended consequences and disruptive technologies that starts 1000 years ago and ends up in the second half of the 21st Century.


Starting with an examination into the drivers of technological change and the social, economic and political factors that both enable or suppress it, Transition Point explains why industrialisation happened where and when it did, why progress comes in waves, and why the technologies in the current wave, such as robotics, blockchain and AI, are likely to be the most disruptive of all.
It then addresses the million-dollar question: what’s next? What impact will this wave have on our businesses, our economies and most importantly, on our society? Culey explores how our current trajectory could result in a new golden age, but also how it is just as likely to result in a digital dictatorship of compliance and constant surveillance. Finally, he explains why we may soon see Homo sapiens’ role as the dominant species come to an end.
As Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, stated; "We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before." 
Transition Point explains why this is happening, what it means, and why the decisions we make now will prove to be critical.
 

Contents

The West Takes Off
28
A Quite Extraordinary Series of Events
42
Exploration Enlightenment and Entrepreneurism
69
Revolution The World Takes Off
85
Gallifreyan Economics and the Art of Creative Destruction
104
Gradually Then Suddenly
128
The End of the Industrial Age
150
The Automation of Labour
171
Retaining Control
408
SixthWave Economics
425
The Time of Keynes Grandchildren
427
A Revolution for Me But Not for Thee
458
Levelling the Field
480
The Potential for a New Golden Age
521
SixthWave Society
539
All Empires Fall
541

The Automation of the Knowledge Worker
212
Convergence The Automation of the Value Chain
245
Part Three
261
New Wave New Paradigms
263
SixthWave Business
283
A New Business Mindset
285
A Copernican Business Revolution
310
SixthWave Science and Technology
333
Science Fiction Becomes Science Fact
335
The Death of Privacy
363
AI Unleashed
380
Cracks in the Foundations
553
Chaos by Design
575
BasicIncome Bread and Virtual Circuses
596
The Mother of All Cultural Lags
606
Brave New World or Big Brother?
628
Beyond the Sixth Wave
649
Battle of the Gods
651
A Tale of Two Species
670
Conclusion
685
References
687
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About the author (2018)

Sean Culey is a global keynote speaker on the topic of disruptive technologies and their impact on business, the economy and society, a renowned business transformation specialist and the author of numerous articles in magazines such as Forbes and The European Business Review.

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