Reprogramming the American Dream:

From Rural America to Silicon Valley – Making AI Serve Us All

Kevin Scott with Greg Shaw

Book/Workbook – I know I’m lost in a book when I’ve dog-eared more pages than not and scribbled notes on the blank pages of the final folio. The dog-ears mark provocative passages I will revisit. The notations are ruminations, questions, that come to mind while reading. I know many readers abhor such practices, likening dog-ears and marginalia to literary graffiti and other acts of defilement. To me, they’re simply signs that I am bewitched. And, as you can tell from the dog-ears and scribbles in the photos below, there’s much to be bedazzled by here. Kevin Scott grew up in rural Virginia and now works as Chief Technology Officer for Microsoft. That story in itself is one story of the Great American Dream. But Scott, who put together the book with Greg Shaw, weaves others. Tales from Gladys, Virginia, to Memphis and Oregon, from Seattle and Redmond to Wyoming, from Los Gatos to Jefferson, Iowa, and points elsewhere. He describes the promise of artificial intelligence as well as the fears AI stirs. He explores ways AI can – and is – revitalizing rural communities, and, in turn, reshaping the national ethos. He dives into the politics and ethics of AI, and suggests ways to deal with change as AI inevitably becomes an ever-larger part of our everyday lives. Do you want to visit the future? Read this book.