"The best way to predict the future is to invent it!"
This maxim circulates widely in Silicon Valley, a place filled with genius entrepreneurs. Innovators have changed the world by creating paths that existed on no map. 'Future Changers' focuses on the stories of those who fought to conquer the future one step ahead of everyone else.
The book illuminates the time before the dazzling moments of success. It reconstructs the hidden side of technological innovation by tracing the periods when innovations were not yet recognized as such, the times when no one believed, and the moments when even the innovators themselves wavered in their conviction. Biographies read after knowing the outcome always appear smooth, but the book reveals that the actual process was far rougher and more uncertain.
A representative example is Alan Kay of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center. In the early 1970s, when computers were considered massive mainframes, he was already envisioning a computer that individuals could carry with them. Through Dynabook and Alto, he presented prototypes of today's laptops and graphical user interfaces, but the management at the time failed to understand the potential. His technology was eventually introduced to the world through Steve Jobs. Kay later reflected, "We invented the future, but we couldn't convince the present."
The book groups today's technology innovators—Jensen Huang, Lisa Su, Dario Amodei, and Demis Hassabis—as 'Future Changers.' However, it does not simply stop at praising their achievements. Instead, it provides a multidimensional view of how innovation is made through their failures, doubts, and the reasons they never gave up.
The author, who has worked as an economic journalist for 26 years, has meticulously woven together 121 scenes based on his experience of witnessing changes in industry and technology firsthand. The book is closer to reportage documenting the time it took to finally turn that future into reality, rather than stories of people who simply saw the future first.
