Drawing on 25 years of experience as a leading computer scientist working at the forefront of high-performance computing, Jacopo Pantaleoni offers an in-depth look at the most important issues confronting society today stemming from the breakneck pace of technological development.
Due for publication in September 2023, The Quickest Revolution seeks to provide a panoramic view of the ongoing, exponentially-paced technological revolution, and to highlight some of its far-reaching and most concrete dangers, including the broad cognitive weakening resulting from the automatized extraction of human attention, the extreme concentration of power accumulating in the hands of a few, supersized, Big Tech companies, and a deepening economic inequality that AI risks to make fundamentally unbridgeable.
"Relentless exponential scaling of computing power is about to have a profound effect on societies through artificial intelligence and the metaverse. Pantaleoni's book offers an insightful and timely guide for navigating these treacherous waters"
Timo Aila, Senior Distinguished Research Scientist, NVIDIA Research
"Of impressing clarity. The most significant book I read in years. Compared to this, other essays look archaic"
Salvatore Sanfilippo, creator of Redis, and author of science-fiction novel Wohpe
"We are living in an extraordinary era, characterized by breathtaking technological, economic, and social upheaval. This charming and erudite book provides a unique perspective on this time of change. The message is a simple 'look before you leap', but for something of immense consequence"
Joe Marks, former Vice President & Research Fellow of The Walt Disney Company
"Makes you pause and think how, where and towards what humanity is driven by technology"
Mahendra Roopa, former Principal Product Manager of autonomous driving at Daimler AG
"The Quickest Revolution is a necessary read for those grappling with concerning developments in artificial intelligence and the infrastructural ubiquity of digital technology in our lives. It dares to ask: what are the consequences of the incredible, concentrated power of Big Tech today? What is the nature of the technological change it is advancing? And what are the implications of these historical trends for the future of human and planetary life? Against the grain, Jacopo Pantaleoni deploys a multidisciplinary approach, combining socio-historical analysis with his own firsthand experience from inside the most advanced laboratories of technological innovation. Put on your seatbelt, reader, because The Quickest Revolution is an eye-opening, high-octane ride through the accelerating revolutionary processes underlying our digital age"
Dr. Heather Gautney, Professor of Sociology, Fordham University, author of The New Power Elite