Power and Progress

By William J. (Jay) Carson, ISSA Senior Member, Colorado Springs Chapter. Originally published in ISSA Journal’s "The Cyber Library" column, July/August 2026, page 22. ISSA Journal.

Disclaimer: These are the author’s subjective opinions, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of any organization or individual. A human prepared this article with assistance from Microsoft Editor and Grammarly.

Reviewing the Works of Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson. Public Affairs, (2023).

Power and Progress: Our 1000-Year Struggle Over Technology & Prosperity.

Sound Bite: Want to be an AI captain of industry? You must know this book’s strategic concepts.

Opinion on Primary Audience: Current/future captains of industry, politicians who want to be remembered as ‘statespeople,’ and voters.

The tip for reading this book came from Dr. Luisa Jarovsky’s AI Book Club. Summary: The historical record routinely shows technological innovation takes an extended time for economic benefits to be widely felt. My first read depressed me with the costs to people of AI taking jobs. The second read gave me hope – it does not have to be that way, with reasonable governmental regulation and voter actions.

The Authors: If economists ever join the Avengers, Professor Daron Acemoglu will need a cape. Nobel laureate, Institute Professor at MIT, PhD from School of London. You have read his co-authored Why Nations Fail and The Narrow Corridor, right? Simon Johnson is also a Nobel laureate and professor at MIT, with his PhD from MIT.

The Metadata: Superb online reviews! Buying costs about $15, less for an electronic copy. Your public library will have copy(s). Using a Wikipedia article on Flesch-Kinkaid Readability, it is college level (one page sample), about 6% passive voice. This article is 3% passive voice.

Table of Contents

[Including Reviewer notes]

1. Control over Technology [Economics History Lesson]
2. Canal Vision [Success (Suez Canal) breeds Hubris/Failure (French Panama effort)]
3. Power to Persuade [Brief History of Leaders Using Mass Psychology]
4. Cultivating Misery [Agriculture – How Good Ideas Go Bad]
5. A Middling Sort of Revolution [Failed Betting on Revolution to Help The People]
6. Casualties of Progress [Progress Does Not Always Result in Better Lives]
7. The Contested Path
8. Digital Damage [Automation Takes Jobs]
9. Artificial Struggle [AI Can Make it Worse]
10. Democracy Breaks [Surveillance Technology/Tech-Assisted Psychology Evils]
11. Redirecting Technology [The Good Possibilities]