Future Imperfect

David Friedman's exploration of how emerging technologies — encryption, nanotechnology, brain-computer interfaces — will transform law, economics, and society.

Economic analysis of future technology: Friedman applies price theory and public choice economics to questions about how new technologies reshape social arrangements. Encryption and privacy: strong cryptography may make privacy nearly absolute, with profound implications for taxation, crime, and government power. Nanotechnology: production at molecular scale could transform scarcity. The book is one of the few serious economic treatments of long-run technological futures — rigorous but speculative.