By Tom Gara - February 1, 2013 - Wall Street Journal
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt is brutally clear: China is the most dangerous superpower on Earth.
Corporate Intelligence reviewed preliminary galleys of Schmidt’s new book, “The New Digital Age,” (Random House) which debuts in April. And Schmidt’s views on China stand out the strongest amid often predictable techno-utopian views of the future.
Some of these views are both cliched and camera-ready . He imagines that soon an “illiterate Maasai cattle herder in the Serengeti” will use a smartphone to “inquire the day’s market prices and crowd-source the whereabouts of any nearby predators.”
Other parts of the book are a much darker take on how authoritarians, extremists and rogues of all varieties are becoming just as empowered as that Maasai herdsman. And the good guys, whoever they are, have yet to work out how to properly defend themselves.
The Schmidt and Cohen partnership has at least one other impressive credit to its name. The two wrote a long essay,“
The Digital Disruption,” published in November 2010. In its opening paragraph, it predicted that “governments will be caught off-guard
when large numbers of their citizens, armed with virtually nothing but cell phones, take part in mini-rebellions that challenge their authority.”
Full blog and links
The Digital DisruptionI haven't posted more as some of it may come close to "overstepping" the forum rules
