By Tom Taulli – Back in 1973, Daniel Bell published a pioneering book, called The Coming of Post-Industrial Society.  He described how society was undergoing relentless change, driven by rapid advances in technology. Services would become more important than goods. There would also be the emergence of a “knowledge class” and gender roles would evolve. According to Bell: “The concept of the post-industrial society deals primarily with changes in the social structure, the way in which the economy is being transformed and the occupational system reworked, and with the new relations between theory and empiricism, particularly science and technology.”

Among the many readers of the book was a young Tom Siebel. And yes, it would rock his world. It’s what inspired him to enroll at the graduate school of engineering at the University of Illinois and get a degree in Computer Science. He would then join Oracle during the 1980s, where he helped lead the wide-scale adoption of relational databases. Then in 1993, he started his own business, called Siebel Systems, which capitalized on the Internet wave, and after this, he launched C3.ai, a top enterprise AI software provider.

No doubt, he has a great view of tech history (during his career, the IT business has gone from $50 billion to $4 trillion). But he also has an uncanny knack for anticipating major trends and opportunities. Bell’s book was certainly a big help. Keep in mind that he said it was essentially about “social forecasting.” Read On: