Humanity's Enduring Quest for Power and Prosperity – Daron Acemoglu

We engage in a discussion centered around Daron Acemoglu's latest book, co-authored with Simon Johnson, titled Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity. The choices we make regarding technology can either advance the interests of a select elite or serve as the foundation for widespread prosperity. But technology's trajectory can be, and should be, controlled and directed for the benefit of all. The remarkable advances in computing over the past fifty years have the potential to be tools of empowerment and democratization, but only if decision-making power is dispersed rather than concentrated in the hands of a few overconfident tech leaders.Daron Acemoglu is Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT.  @DAcemogluMIT(Cover photo of Daron Acemoglu by Cody O'Loughlin)Key highlights:Introduction - 00:24Understanding “progress” - 04:06Optimism in an era of doom and gloom - 12:00The power of persuasion - 16:10Shared prosperity, welfare, and whether technology is always useful - 25:08Machine intelligence vs. machine usefulness - 30:12How technology (e.g., AI) can help promote development in low-income countries - 36:50Host:Professor Dan Banik (@danbanik  @GlobalDevPod)Apple Google Spotify YouTubeSubscribe: https://globaldevpod.substack.com/ Host:Professor Dan Banik, Centre for Global Sustainability, University of OsloSubscribe:Apple Spotify YouTubehttps://globaldevpod.substack.com/