Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies
Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew Mcafee: Second Machine Age (2016, Norton & Company Limited, W. W.)
336 pages
English language
Published Jan. 5, 2016 by Norton & Company Limited, W. W..
A revolution is under way. In recent years, Google's autonomous cars have logged thousands of miles on American highways and IBM's Watson trounced the best human Jeopardy! players. Digital technologies -- with hardware, software, and networks at their core -- will in the near future diagnose diseases more accurately than doctors can, apply enormous data sets to transform retailing, and accomplish many tasks once considered uniquely human. In The Second Machine Age MIT's Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee -- two thinkers at the forefront of their field -- reveal the forces driving the reinvention of our lives and our economy. As the full impact of digital technologies is felt, we will realize immense bounty in the form of dazzling personal technology, advanced infrastructure, and near-boundless access to the cultural items that enrich our lives. Amid this bounty will also be wrenching change. Professions of all kinds, from lawyers to truck …
A revolution is under way. In recent years, Google's autonomous cars have logged thousands of miles on American highways and IBM's Watson trounced the best human Jeopardy! players. Digital technologies -- with hardware, software, and networks at their core -- will in the near future diagnose diseases more accurately than doctors can, apply enormous data sets to transform retailing, and accomplish many tasks once considered uniquely human. In The Second Machine Age MIT's Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee -- two thinkers at the forefront of their field -- reveal the forces driving the reinvention of our lives and our economy. As the full impact of digital technologies is felt, we will realize immense bounty in the form of dazzling personal technology, advanced infrastructure, and near-boundless access to the cultural items that enrich our lives. Amid this bounty will also be wrenching change. Professions of all kinds, from lawyers to truck drivers, will be forever upended. Companies will be forced to transform or die. Recent economic indicators reflect this shift: fewer people are working, and wages are falling even as productivity and profits soar. Drawing on years of research and up-to-the-minute trends, Brynjolfsson and McAfee identify the best strategies for survival and offer a new path to prosperity. These include revamping education so that it prepares people for the next economy instead of the last one, designing new collaborations that pair brute processing power with human ingenuity, and embracing policies that make sense in a radically transformed landscape. A fundamentally optimistic book, The Second Machine Age will alter how we think about issues of technological, societal, and economic progress. - Publisher.
This book is ok but heavily optimistic about the future. They paint AI and future computing like it will evolve humans when we know that big tech just sees us as cattle. It is enjoyable at the very least.
It is a good book but very hopeful on how our economy will an eventual automation of labor. They don't address the issue of wealth inequality well enough to give you a concrete overview on what may come. The book I based my observations on is rise of the robots by Martin Ford
Looked over this yesterday while cleaning out my backlog of ebooks on the to read list (apparently I completely forgot I read this.)
This book dives deeper into economics than most of its peers. Despite that I still think academic economics is the last place I'd look for any meaningful insights into anything.
It also goes into crowd sourcing a bit - (note to self to add notes)
I just reviewed [b:Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future|22928874|Rise of the Robots Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future|Martin Ford|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1411605128s/22928874.jpg|42498449] which is quite similar but with much more support for its conclusions. If you read Rise of the Robots, there's not a lot of point reading this one unless you already bought this and are very interested in the topic.
