The Code Economy: A Forty-Thousand Year History by Philip E. Auerswald, Hardcover

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The Code Economy: A Forty-Thousand Year History

What do Stone Age axes, Toll House cookies, and Burning Man have in common? They are all examples of code in action.

What is "code"? Code is the DNA of human civilization as it has evolved from Neolithic simplicity to modern complexity. It is the "how" of progress. It is how ideas become things, how ingredients become cookies. It is how cities are created and how industries develop.

In a sweeping narrative that takes readers from the invention of the alphabet to the advent of the Blockchain, Philip Auerswald argues that the advance of code is the key driver of human history. Over the span of centuries, each major stage in the advance of code has brought a shift in the structure of society that has challenged human beings to reinvent not only how we work but who we are.

We are in another of those stages now. The Code Economy explains how the advance of code is once again fundamentally altering the nature of work and the human experience. Auerswald provides a timely investigation of value creation in the contemporary economy-and an indispensable guide to our economic future.

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The Code Economy: A Forty-Thousand Year History

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Overview

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190226763
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/22/2017
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Philip Auerswald is an Associate Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University and a Senior Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation. He is also the Co-founder and Co-editor of Innovations, a quarterly journal about entrepreneurial solutions to global challenges.

Introduction: Technology = Recipes 1

Part 1 The Advance of Code

1 Jobs: Divide and Coordinate 13

2 Code: "This Is the Procedure" 25

3 Machines: "The Universal Character" 36

4 Computers: Predicting the Weather 50

Part 2 Code Economics

5 Substitution: The Great Man-vs-Machine Debate 65

6 Information: "Reliable Circuits Using Crummy Relays" 87

7 Learning: The Dividend of Doing 99

8 Evolution: The Code of Life 115

9 Platforms: The Role of Standards in Enabling Increased Complexity 129

Part 3 The Human Advantage

10 Complementarity: The Bifurcation Is Near 151

11 Education: The Game of Life 168

12 Equity: Progress and Poverty 180

13 Authenticity: Creating the Foundation for Reputation 202

14 Purpose: The Promised Sand 216

Conclusion: Identity: A Copernican Moment 235

Acknowledgments 239

Notes 243

References 271

Index 283

From the B&N Reads Blog

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Editorial Reviews

10/24/2016
Auerswald, associate professor of public policy at George Mason University, ambitiously provides a 40,000-year history of human productivity, from the simple to the complex, in his sophisticated study. He calls this progression “the advance of code” and focuses on how abstract concepts—code—are turned into actual things. Auerswald asserts that we cannot “understand the dynamics of the economy—its past or its future—without an understanding of code.” His interpretation of code ranges from the obvious (computer code) to the less so (cooking recipes). He seeks to even out the imbalance in the way economics is currently taught, focusing on “code and production” as well as “choice and consumption.” Auerswald offers up three key ideas: the creation and refinement of code is an essential human activity, progress in developing code is what drives the economy, and these developments produce not just new products but new ways of seeing and experiencing the world. He divides the book into three sections: “The Advance of Code,” which examines the past and how code has evolved; “Code Economics,” which explores economic studies; and “The Human Advantage,” which looks at the relationship between code and human experience. Those who study the field of economics will find Auerswald’s arguments to be cogent and sound. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Code is modern alchemy — transmuting thought into action, labor into capital. As computers saturate our world and code runs everywhere, this book offers a history of how we got here and a glimpse into our highly interesting future." - Marc Andreessen, cofounder Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz
"By showing how human civilization has advanced over centuries through the creation and improvement of what we now call "code" Philip Auerswald recounts an amazing history that helps us understand how we will live and work in the future." - Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs and The Innovators, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute
"Philip Auerswald weaves a compelling metaphor for a socio-economic ecosystem whose "code" determines its behavior in sometimes subtle ways. These ideas help us make sense of long- and short-term phenomena that we encounter as we try to understand, and even to predict, some of the vicissitudes of our 21st Century lives." - Vint Cerf, Internet Pioneer
"The Code Economy is a strikingly interesting and important book. Much of economic thought focuses on consumption. Auerswald focuses instead on the history of production, recounting the evolution of code as "recipes" from the origin of writing to the development of the Internet; from the culinary creations of Julia Child to the manufacture of airplanes. Read it." - Stuart Kauffman, author of At Home in the Universe and The Origins of Order
"The genius of The Code Economy is putting innovation, automation, and artificial intelligence in historical context — telling the story of technology from the dawn of humanity to present. It should be required reading for anyone in the tech industry." - Kristin Sharp, Executive Director of the Shift Commission on Work, Workers, and Technology, New America
"Phil Auerswald looks at the economy as an ever-changing, ever-evolving set of arrangements, procedures and recipes - a "code economy." The result is a delightful account of how human activities have gathered power and complexity over centuries. Original, interesting, and thought-provoking." - W. Brian Arthur, author of Complexity and the Economy
"The end of the industrial era also means the of "organization man"—the phenomenon of people shaping themselves into institutional puzzle pieces in order to earn a livelihood. Philip Auerswald understands this. With engaging story-telling combined with insightful analysis, Auerswald recounts the history of work over the span of centuries. In so doing. he helps us understand that the social era in which we find ourselves is one filled not only with uncertainties and risks, but also with abundant and unprecendented personal possibilities." - Nilofer Merchant, author The Social Era
"In a time where most people are feeling deep anxiety about the future of work, Philip Auerswald provides a much more positive vision. By separating "work," which brings us meaning, from "jobs," which deliver a paycheck, Auerswald provides companies, policymakers, and society with a roadmap for where our economy can actually go in coming decades." - Ross Baird, Chief Executive Officer, Village Capital
"The economics of the future will be the economics of code. Phil Auerswald gets this, and in this book he shows you why that matters so much." -Tyler Cowen, Professor of Economics, George Mason University

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