The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity

By Tim Wu

Categories: Computers & Technology, Politics & Social Sciences

Tim Wu, the legal scholar who coined the phrase "net neutrality," contends that a handful of tech platforms have become powerful instruments for extracting money, data and attention. In his view, an internet that promised broad wealth and democracy has instead created new economic classes. Wu draws on lessons from generative AI and predictive social data to the antimonopoly and crypto movements, weighs the risks and rewards of platform power and offers proposals for a more balanced economy.

Recommended by 1 person

• Seth Godin: “Tim Wu is our best explainer of how, without boundaries, networks always spiral out of control. His new book is twenty years too late or exactly what we need right now.”