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Digital Fluency: Understanding the Basics of Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain Technology, Quantum Computing, and Their Applications for Digital Transformation
If you are curious about the basics of artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, and quantum computing as key enablers for digital transformation and innovation, Digital Fluency is your handy guide. The real-world applications of these cutting-edge technologies are expanding rapidly, and your daily life will continue to be affected by each of them. There is no better time than now to get started and become digitally fluent. You need not have previous knowledge of these versatile technologies, as author Volker Lang will expertly guide you through this digital age. He illustrates key concepts and applications in numerous practical examples and more than 48 catchy figures throughout Digital Fluency . The end of each chapter presents you with a helpful implementation checklist of central lessons before proceeding to the next. This book gets to the heart of digital buzzwords and concepts, and tells you what they truly mean. Breaking down topics such as automated driving and intelligent robotics powered by artificial intelligence, blockchain-based cryptocurrencies and smart contracts, drug development and optimization of financial investment portfolios by quantum computing, and more is imperative to being ready for what the future of industry holds. Whether your own digital transformation journey takes place within your private or public organization, your studies, or your individual household, Digital Fluency maps out a concrete digital action plan for all of your technology and innovation strategy needs.
What You Will Learn
Who This Book Is For Thought-leaders, business executives and industry strategists, management and strategy consultants, politicians and policy makers, entrepreneurs, financial analysts, investors and venture capitalists, students and research scientists, as well as general readers, who want to become digitally fluent.
What You Will Learn
Who This Book Is For Thought-leaders, business executives and industry strategists, management and strategy consultants, politicians and policy makers, entrepreneurs, financial analysts, investors and venture capitalists, students and research scientists, as well as general readers, who want to become digitally fluent.
- GenresTechnology
324 pages, Paperback
Published April 9, 2021
10 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 1, 2025
Learning the Lingo - Particularly wanting to learn more about Blockchain and Quantum Computing, I picked up this book. Not only does Lang explain these technologies and Artificial Intelligence, but he also endeavors to situate them within wider digital transformation efforts. Although such treatment helps, it is fortunate that author points to other resources that deal with particular aspects in more detail (e.g., see my review of Rogers’ “Digital Transformation Playbook”).
More specifically, the book consists of 5 chapters: (1) Digitalization & Digital Transformation, (2) Quantum Computing, (3) Blockchain Technology, (4) Artificial Intelligence, and (5) Your Digital Action Plan. There extensive notes, and suggestions for further reading at the conclusion of each chapter as well as at the end of the book. The author even includes little “check lists” for those considering the different technologies and ways they might fit into different business or organizational activities.
Given my interests, the parts of the book that stood out for me were those that explained Quantum Computing and Blockchain Technology and put them into perspective. For example, Lang goes into quantum physics and elaborates (on Kindle pg. 66) that “In analogy to their classical relatives, a quantum computer encodes information in quantum bits – so-called qubits – and processes them by quantum logic gates accordingly.” By using quantum properties of “. . . superposition and entanglement . . . [such computers can] conduct multiple computational steps at the same time . . . “ While these machines have much greater memory capacity and speed, they have to use “dilution refrigeration . . . operating . . . at cryogenic temperatures close to the absolute zero . . .” to alleviate “corruption and degradation.” Despite such challenges, there are a number of them on the market for commercial use “. . . reducing development times for products and services that involve computationally intense optimization problems or extensive simulation and modeling phases . . .”
Regarding Blockchain, the author indicates (on pg. 125) that “. . . [this] technology is an innovative tool for securely storing and sharing various kinds of digital information through a cryptographically secured ledger or database.” Later (pg. 156) he summarizes that “Blockchain technology builds on different enabling technologies, such as distributed peer-to-peer networks, cryptographic hash functions, Merkle trees, digital signatures, and public-key cryptography.” While popularly known related to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, this technology can also have uses in such areas as in payment and sharing services (pg. 144), supply chain management and logistics (pg. 149), anti-fraud of consumer goods (pg. 149) energy commodities platforms (pg. 150), blockchain consortia (pg. 151), and other uses in governmental services, law, and healthcare such as blockchain-based land title registry, managing intellectual property (IP) rights, and encrypted and tamperproof ledgers of diagnoses and medications (pg. 154).
The chapter on Artificial Intelligence (AI) is also revealing, although there are now more and more books that deal with the background and various usages of this technology that are beginning to emerge. Significantly, Lang conveys (on pg. 165) that “In contrast to quantum computing and blockchain technology, artificial intelligence does not require any expensive hardware and costly IT infrastructure since most of its benefits can be delivered through existing computing hardware and open-source software on a reasonable timescale already.” Books ranging from Metz “Genius Makers” and Suleyman’s “The Next Wave” to Ullman et al’s “Future Tense Fiction” cover AI background as well as explore potential usage, implications, and cautionary aspects (see my reviews).
Among the drawbacks of the book were those concerning digital transformation, organizational strategy, and change. While the author is to be commended for putting the digital technologies and dealing with their impact into context, there are other books that provide more specifics along these lines. Related the author cites consultant Geoffrey Moore and other more recent business and technology books might be considered in this regard (e.g. see my reviews of Moore’s “Zone to Win” and Jägare’s “Data Science Strategy For Dummies”).
Even with my criticism, “Digital Fluency” remains a useful book for those of us seeking to better understand and “learn the lingo” related to these increasingly visible digital technologies and the ways they are being employed more widely.
More specifically, the book consists of 5 chapters: (1) Digitalization & Digital Transformation, (2) Quantum Computing, (3) Blockchain Technology, (4) Artificial Intelligence, and (5) Your Digital Action Plan. There extensive notes, and suggestions for further reading at the conclusion of each chapter as well as at the end of the book. The author even includes little “check lists” for those considering the different technologies and ways they might fit into different business or organizational activities.
Given my interests, the parts of the book that stood out for me were those that explained Quantum Computing and Blockchain Technology and put them into perspective. For example, Lang goes into quantum physics and elaborates (on Kindle pg. 66) that “In analogy to their classical relatives, a quantum computer encodes information in quantum bits – so-called qubits – and processes them by quantum logic gates accordingly.” By using quantum properties of “. . . superposition and entanglement . . . [such computers can] conduct multiple computational steps at the same time . . . “ While these machines have much greater memory capacity and speed, they have to use “dilution refrigeration . . . operating . . . at cryogenic temperatures close to the absolute zero . . .” to alleviate “corruption and degradation.” Despite such challenges, there are a number of them on the market for commercial use “. . . reducing development times for products and services that involve computationally intense optimization problems or extensive simulation and modeling phases . . .”
Regarding Blockchain, the author indicates (on pg. 125) that “. . . [this] technology is an innovative tool for securely storing and sharing various kinds of digital information through a cryptographically secured ledger or database.” Later (pg. 156) he summarizes that “Blockchain technology builds on different enabling technologies, such as distributed peer-to-peer networks, cryptographic hash functions, Merkle trees, digital signatures, and public-key cryptography.” While popularly known related to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, this technology can also have uses in such areas as in payment and sharing services (pg. 144), supply chain management and logistics (pg. 149), anti-fraud of consumer goods (pg. 149) energy commodities platforms (pg. 150), blockchain consortia (pg. 151), and other uses in governmental services, law, and healthcare such as blockchain-based land title registry, managing intellectual property (IP) rights, and encrypted and tamperproof ledgers of diagnoses and medications (pg. 154).
The chapter on Artificial Intelligence (AI) is also revealing, although there are now more and more books that deal with the background and various usages of this technology that are beginning to emerge. Significantly, Lang conveys (on pg. 165) that “In contrast to quantum computing and blockchain technology, artificial intelligence does not require any expensive hardware and costly IT infrastructure since most of its benefits can be delivered through existing computing hardware and open-source software on a reasonable timescale already.” Books ranging from Metz “Genius Makers” and Suleyman’s “The Next Wave” to Ullman et al’s “Future Tense Fiction” cover AI background as well as explore potential usage, implications, and cautionary aspects (see my reviews).
Among the drawbacks of the book were those concerning digital transformation, organizational strategy, and change. While the author is to be commended for putting the digital technologies and dealing with their impact into context, there are other books that provide more specifics along these lines. Related the author cites consultant Geoffrey Moore and other more recent business and technology books might be considered in this regard (e.g. see my reviews of Moore’s “Zone to Win” and Jägare’s “Data Science Strategy For Dummies”).
Even with my criticism, “Digital Fluency” remains a useful book for those of us seeking to better understand and “learn the lingo” related to these increasingly visible digital technologies and the ways they are being employed more widely.
November 2, 2021
Excellent.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews