London, UK -- (ReleaseWire) -- 08/05/2020 --Before Covid-19, humanity was heading towards two doors. Behind one door stood the opportunity to create the closest thing to utopia that has ever existed. Behind the other was a path paved with the threat of growing inequality, eroding privacy, authoritarianism, conflict, and then dystopia. The great pandemic of 2020 has brought both these doors much closer.

Technology is mutating, and nothing in evolution has prepared humanity for the changes that are set to follow. It is accelerating at an accelerating rate (in other words, it is experiencing a jerk).

This is not some distant future. The change has begun, and political division, extremism, and social unrest are already happening. Strap yourself in because the current political and economic turmoil is nothing compared to what the next two decades will bring.

In the recently released book Living in the Age of the Jerk: Technology Innovation, Pandemics, and our Future, authors Michael Baxter and Julien de Salaberry invite the reader to join the debate about the terrifying yet wonderful consequences of technology, and how it will change the world, the environment, the ecosystem, and humanity itself.

Technology will enable these changes during the lifetime of most readers of this book. The consequences are terrifying yet wonderful. Not since agriculture was discovered and humans moved from hunting to farming it was witnessed so much change.

Humanity can emerge from the technology change that is occurring triumphant, basking in the glory that is the civilization. A kind of utopia can be experienced, but descending into a totalitarian disaster is also a risk.

"The book achieves something very rare for one on technology -- it is thought-provoking and informative while providing a wonderful historical perspective about an era of rapid change which has its roots back centuries, in some cases."
~ Lawrence Gosling
Editorial Director, Bohill Group and a regular commentator on UK TV