The Second Machine Age

Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies

By: Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee

Narrated by: Jeff Cummings

Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award, Judges' Award: Science & Technology, 2015

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 audiobook, The Second Machine Age will alter how we think about issues.

©2014 Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Sooo Many Examples

If you are up to date with the tech world, most of this books will be repetitive.

A must read!

I've gone through this book several times. I am interested in understanding the implications of accelerating technical progress as it relates to society's structure. Are leaders coming to grip with what this monumental change represents and are there strategies being discussed that would allow us to move into this new age stronger and happier? I wish these concepts were mainstream discussions so that we could use them to evaluate potential political candidates in upcoming elections. Jobs are getting scarce. The middle class is suffering. The Status Quo won't do. (Hear me Fox News?) We need to talk real options. It's a new age, change your thinking.

techno-optimism

worthwhile discussion points, but couldn't help be skeptical that the future will be so brilliant we'll need to wear shades. fairly short shrift to the potential downsides of technology

Good analysis

Andrew McAfee's TED talks are my go-to reference for anyone looking to understand the potential of automation and AI and how it could impact jobs and work. I started reading this book after watching the authors talk at Google, which I recommend as a good overview of what to expect from this book.
This book is a good primer on the current status and potential of automation and AI. The authors think through the possible impact of these changes and offer ideas of how to minimize damage and improve results. They follow a healthy attitude towards automation; neither cheering for it or warning about it, but rather accepting it as a likely future and thinking through its implementations.
The authors aren't afraid to say "we don't know" and offered honest assessment for the likelihood of their predications.
I disagree with some of the ideas, especially their critique of universal basic income. However I found some of the other ideas impressive and thought-provoking like how when humans and machines work together they can produce better results than machines on their own. The section on improving education is a recommended reading for everyone.
I recommend this book for anyone looking to understand the upcoming changes in Automation and AI whether they have read about the subject before or looking for an introduction and overview.

Internet Non-rival Consumptive?

I disagree with authors regarding the Internet as being intrinsically non-rival consumtive. See US Patent No. 7,124,362.

The Economics of Digital Innovation

This book was not what I thought it would be, but that turned out to be a good thing. As a technologist and IT professional I tend to not know enough about how technology and innovation is metabolized by an economy. This book covers that topic. If you are interested in knowing about how our technological change has and might impact the world that we are rapidly creating, this book is a god-send. Much food for thought, many suggestions for the leaders of the Second Machine Age.

Good for the periphery

Well organized, thoughtfully written, but if you're reading in the space, absolutely no new information. This is a book I'll recommend to readers who aren't already reading blogs and books covering similar topics. I did like the presentation as hopeful without being fervent.

Read it! (or listen to it!)

Awesome, informative book! It looks at both the bounty and the spread induced by new technologies and makes a balanced argument for the future.

A GREAT read... A look Ahead, grounded in History

A combination of Future Vision and historical context. An interesting look at the future from two current practitioners who helped to shape it.

A good balance of a current perspective based on what's actually happening now, versus what was expected by the fathers and grandfathers of the evolving Technologies.

The book also introduces some of the human issues the rapid evolution of Technology is giving rise to.

A GREAT exploration of the topic. Bill C.

thought provoking

I've already shared many of these ideas with friends and they were intrigued. good material for cocktail party discussion.