A Borzoi Book

Introduction -- Part I: Understanding Platform Power -- The Genius of the Ancient City Square -- Platformization -- From Enablement to Extraction-the Story of the Amazon Marketplace -- Scale as a Weapon -- The Great Harvest -- Part II: The Business of Herding -- A Long Slow Bet on Laziness -- Big data, knowing the future & controlling the future -- Artificial Intelligence and the Calculus of Human Dependence -- Platform Power Beyond Tech -- Part III: The Dangers of Centralized Economic Power -- The Risks of Centralized Economic Power -- Some Solutions -- The Persistent Dream of the Self-Correcting Economy -- Technological Answers to Economic Inequality -- Mere Redistribution -- Part IV: An Architecture of Equality -- Platforms and the Architecture of Equality -- Epilogue

"A concise yet century-spanning exploration of the power of platforms, what the future of capitalism will look like, and how to build economies that provide equality and lasting prosperity"--

Our world is dominated by a handful of tech platforms. They provide great conveniences and entertainment, but also stand as some of the most effective instruments of wealth extraction ever invented, seizing immense amounts of money, data, and attention from all of us. An economy driven by digital platforms and AI influence offers the potential to enrich us, and also threatens to marginalize entire industries, widen the wealth gap, and foster a two-class nation. As technology evolves and our markets adapt, can society cultivate a better life for everyone? Is it possible to balance economic growth and egalitarianism, or are we too far gone? Tim Wu--the preeminent scholar and former White House official who coined the phrase "net neutrality"--explores the rise of platform power and details the risks and rewards of working within such systems. The Age of Extraction tells the story of an Internet that promised widespread wealth and democracy in the 1990s and 2000s, only to create new economic classes and aid the spread of autocracy instead. Wu frames our current moment with lessons from recent history--from generative AI and predictive social data to the antimonopoly and crypto movements--and envisions a future where technological advances can serve the greatest possible good. Concise and hopeful, The Age of Extraction offers consequential proposals for taking back control in order to achieve a better economic balance and prosperity for all