Exponential by Azeem Azhar review – bridging the technology gap

A bullish survey of AI, biotech, renewables and more explains how change is leaving us behind, and what to do about it

A 2020 survey found that 60% of people felt the pace of change in life was too fast. Faced with steam engines or lifts for the first time, previous generations probably thought so too. But according to the technology analyst and entrepreneur Azeem Azhar we have indeed entered a period of unparalleled and destabilising change: a wholly new era of human society and economic organisation - what I call the Exponential Age".

Azhar identifies computing and artificial intelligence, renewable electricity and energy storage, biotech and manufacturing (such as 3D printing) as the areas in which innovations are developing at an exponential rate: new technologies are being invented and scaled at an ever-faster pace, all while decreasing rapidly in price".