The Industries of the Future

The Industries of the Future is a 2016 popular science novel by Alec Ross, a scholar of technology policy and former US Senior Advisor for Innovation. It explores several scientific frontiers—namely genetics, robotics, coding, data science, and cryptocurrency—and explains how they will radically change society. The novel has received acclaim for making these typically obscure scientific fields accessible to a wider audience, and for providing a compelling argument against conceptions of the future based on extrapolations from current trends.

The novel begins by providing an overview of the domains and industries Ross wants to examine. He asserts that artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics will drastically change the kind of work we have to do and eliminate the need for most “work” today. He also believes that huge advances in the biological sciences will greatly extend the average human life expectancy. Ross takes care to qualify his projections with the insight that these technologies will not be available to everyone; rather, they will mainly be accessible to the super rich members of developed nations. He also explains that code will soon replace money and even physical weapons with cryptocurrency and cryptographic weaponry. In this near future, data will be a primary currency, since most industries will be fueled by information.

Next, Ross discusses globalization and how it will impact the economy. He states that increasing competition and occasional monopolization will need to be met with legislation that protects the welfare and dignity of individuals and families who lack extreme wealth. He focuses particularly on women, predicting that the states that adapt best to the new economies will do so partially because they make major strides toward equality for women. He also projects that the children of the future will have to prepare early on for an extremely competitive world.



Ross breaks down innovations in robotics, explaining how the field has evolved from being manual to cognitive. Robotics tasks no longer need a constant human surveyor who repeatedly moves robotic components using a control panel; rather, robots are quickly becoming autonomous. Ross believes that the trend toward full autonomy is inevitable given advances in cloud computing and mathematical modeling computations. He also notes the distinct attitudes that human cultures have developed toward robots. For example, while many Americans are afraid of existential risk related to AI, people in countries such as Japan embrace robots, even in intimate contexts such as nursing homes. Ross also anticipates that poorer countries will develop cheaper but functional alternatives to these mainstream devices, just as they did with cellular technology.

Next, Ross refers to the computer revolution that birthed the internet and anticipates that the next comparable revolution will relate to the human genome. He takes examples from modern science that show how far genomics has already come. For example, gene-editing technologies have already, in certain isolated cases, been able to cure cancer and grow certain organs from stem cells. He again notes that the United States has a different position on the future of these technologies than other frontrunners, such as China. However, Ross believes that the world economy will create an ecosystem for the shared project of humanitarian innovation.

Finally, Ross turns to digital currency, placing it in the more traditional contexts of markets, contracts, and trust systems. He explains that digital currencies will augment the shift from physical to online banking and have a role in the emerging sharing economy. He projects cryptocurrency will reach a twelve-figure market capitalization in the year of his book’s publication (2016). However, he makes no claims about whether Bitcoin or blockchain will be the main digital technologies for currency.



The Industries of the Future is a highly speculative but well-researched survey of humankind’s nascent industries and technological innovations. Ross remains extremely hopeful about the future he describes while trying to pinpoint the challenges and inequities it might also create.