Alec Ross opens with a vivid contrast: as a college student, he worked midnight janitorial shifts and grueling days on a beer truck in West Virginia, surrounded by bars where men sat each morning with whiskey, beer, and guns. Twenty years later, he was working in the White House Situation Room as Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary Hillary Clinton. Between those bookends lies a third formative experience: teaching sixth graders on the 1300 block of Mulla Street in West Baltimore. During his time at Booker T. Washington Middle School, he witnessed devastating poverty, hopelessness, and violence. Only one parent showed up for a 35-student conference, two girls became pregnant at age eleven, and twelve of his former students were murdered in the years that followed.

These three environments, he says, revealed a unifying truth: despair in West Baltimore and in West Virginia stems from the same source, a lack of opportunity. Over the last 30 years, globalization and economic transformation dismantled America’s industrial base. Jobs that once offered stability, wages, pensions, and healthcare vanished, replaced by a knowledge-driven, technology-centric economy. Those left behind were not less intelligent. Alec emphasizes that the kids he grew up with and taught were just as capable as the peers he later worked with in government. The difference was access to opportunity.

Alec then explores the central theme of his bestselling book The Industries of the Future: if 1995–2015 was defined by digitization, what industries will shape 2016–2026? He highlights three poised for massive growth, all of which have strong roots in Maryland. First, big data analytics: data is the raw material of the information age, and foundational analytic skills will yield decades of opportunity. Second, cybersecurity: Maryland has thousands of open roles, many of which require only an associate degree, with average salaries starting around $60,000 to $93,000. Third, genomics: the next trillion-dollar industry will emerge from genetic code, and Baltimore sits at the center of a rapidly expanding genomics ecosystem.

Alec Ross opens with a simple but polarizing question: will the future resemble the hopeful world of Star Trek or the dystopia of Mad Max? He notes that in tech hubs such as Seattle and San Francisco, audiences overwhelmingly predict Star Trek, while communities in places like West Virginia or West Baltimore—where he taught early in his career—tend to expect Mad Max. The divide, he says, has less to do with technology and more to do with a deeply human question we can’t outsource to algorithms: will we rewrite our social contract?

Alec traces the evolution of the social contract across eras. In early empires, rulers were treated nearly as gods, with subjects existing solely to serve them. Feudalism became the first Western social contract, shaped by interdependence: nobles pledged taxes and military service to the crown, and peasants were required to work the land in exchange for protection. As society transitioned into the Industrial Age, innovations such as the printing press, steam engine, and mechanization shifted both labor and economic structures. Over decades, a new contract emerged—free public education, social insurance, minimum wage, and the 40-hour workweek.

He concludes by returning to the original question. The future will reflect Star Trek or Mad Max not by technological inevitability, but by the choices we make in reimagining the relationship between citizen, corporation, and state. The outcome, Alec asserts, is entirely up to us.