While sifting through a cardboard box of books last week in the basement of my parent’s house, I came across Glenn Reynolds’ 2006 book An Army of Davids: How markets and technology empower ordinary people to beat Big Media, Big Government and other Goliaths. Apparently it had gone unnoticed and was mistakenly placed in a neglected stack of books (along with my copy of William Gibson’s Spook Country!).

Mr. Reynolds is a U of Tennessee law professor and one of the faces behind instapundit.com. His book covered some great topics, a survey of up-and-coming technological mediums, geared towards the individual. In other words, an optimistic view of a future world in which government and the corporate machine don’t hold all the cards.

Topics ranged from user-generated content on the net (film, music, and other media), grassroots space travel initiatives, and entrepreneurial opportunities, to more ambitious projects such as nanotech, genetic and gerontologic technology, and of course, the Singularity.

The first of these latter topics discussed how in a world where manufacturing any item an individual desires can be made possible using self-assembling nanotech builders, and raw materials (e.g. “sunshine and dirt”), the developed world’s economy will increase its focus on services (both real and virtual), as the need for good declines.

Further points of interest included interviews with Aubrey de Grey of the Methuselah Foundation, who also appeared lately on the Colbert Report to discuss the topic of repairing and reversing human again, and Ray Kurzweil, to discuss the prospects of non-biological intelligence and the Singularity.

In summary, a great overview of the technologies that will shape the developed world’s economies and our lives over the next couple decades.

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