"By 2025, the majority of the world's population will, in one generation, have gone from having virtually no access to unfiltered information to accessing all the world's information through a device that fits in the palm of the hand. If the current pace of technological innovation is maintained, most of the projected eight billion people on Earth will be online," wright writes Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Goggle, where he served as chief executive officer from 2001 to 20011, and Jared Cohen, director of Google Ideas. They believe that everything in our lived lives will be transformed by this virtual landscape. It will color relationships, community activities, politics, corporate power, privacy, creativity, education, memory, and more.

It is already hard to remember what life was like before the advent of mobile smart phones. Next on the horizon, more apps for these devices along with new and improved tools to improve and enrich our lives: 3-D printing, robots for the home, the expansion of online education, customized devices for curating life stories, improvement in disease detection and treatment, and even more formats for our entertainment choices.

Schmidt and Cohen delve into the complicated challenges related to identity, citizenship, and reporting. At the core of these topics is the question of privacy for the individual and security for the state. They also discuss cyber-attacks by competing corporations as they vie for dominance on the global market. As we have seen in recent uprisings, the Internet can play a major role in rebellions and mass protest against repressive governments. Digital eyes are watching us now and will be doing so even more in the future as terrorists continue to spread death and destruction and the authorities try to identify and monitor them. Digitally driven drones have given military strategists new options for combat and intervention.

The New Digital Age by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen provides a helpful map for those interested in the multidimensional impact of technology, computers, the Internet, and mobile devices on the future shape of our lives and activities.