Jim Blasingame's Award-Winning Book

In his new book, business expert, author and futurist, Jim Blasingame, reveals the source of our anxiety about technology: An unprecedented ethical paradigm shift.

As contemporary humans, we must remember one immutable fact: You and I are, have always been, and always will be, analog. From Euclid to Edison to Eddie, your brother-in-law, we’re all physical, analog beings. And having lived in and perpetuated an analog world for 10,000 years, for good or for ill, humans have therefore always exhibited analog behavior.

But there is something very new in our world. In fact, it’s the underlying thread of The 3rd Ingredient. We’ve taken the aggregation of information, knowledge, accomplishments and, for the first time in history, created something quite unique. A force that has only recently become available to humans. A truly new innovation with its own energy: digital technology producing digital leverage.

Blasingame focuses on the impact of digital leverage on what he calls “analog ethics.” Perhaps like no one else to date, Blasingame helps his readers understand that the ethics we developed during the 10,000 years of the Analog Age can’t move fast enough against the forces of digital leverage. In fact, he says we must create digital ethics that are preemptive.

Blasingame takes the reader on a 10-millennia journey from the headwaters of humanity’s vast catalog of analog ethics to how they might manifest in 22nd century parallel universe scenarios. And how things turn out depends on whether we find a way to hold digital fear and greed in equilibrium with corresponding ethical forces. Throughout the book, from history to future, Blasingame put readers in a position to challenge themselves about how they would behave under the ethical pressures depicted in each Episode.

One of Blasingame’s primary conclusions is that our greatest danger is not from AI or a robot, but from ourselves. That as we democratize digital leverage, we also have to become devoted to digital ethics that can be applied simultaneously with the pressing of an “Enter” key.

Blasingame says that every day we all pass many analog ethical tests, but increasingly, we’re failing the digital ethical test, sometimes within seconds of each other. That’s right – in a matter of seconds.

Having been spawned in the analog headwaters of humanity, you and I are experiencing a new and abrupt confluence of forces, as seductive and compelling digital leverage is challenging our primal analog nature. And as we continue to race into the ever-more-digital 21st century, hell-bent-for-light-speed, there’s the rub.

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"We’ve entered a new reality where digital leverage, like artificial intelligence, is changing our world. In The 3rd Ingredient, Jim Blasingame reveals why fear and greed are easily adjusting to this speed-of-light change, while dangerously leaving our analog ethics behind. How we fix this imbalance is an existential question Jim’s book asks and answers."

- John Sculley
Former CEO at Pepsi and Apple

"The 3rd Ingredient is about the topic that’s on everyone’s mind: How technology is changing us. Jim Blasingame reveals why we may have more to fear from the “Enter” key under our fingertip than a robot. And he makes us think about the future of Trust in the Digital Age."

- Ivan Misner
Founder of BNI and NY Times Bestselling Author

"I’m a raving fan of Jim Blasingame. Every time I interact with him, he pushes me and makes me think. Jim’s new book, The 3rd Ingredient, will do the same for you. Dive into the book, and be ready to have your thinking challenged. You’ll never feel the same about the digital world we live in today. You’re the best, Jim!"

- Ken Blanchard
Coauthor of The New One Minutes Manager®
Coeditor of Servant Leadership in Action