Kirkus Review
A hopeful view of the future as we enter a second machine age. Driverless cars and 3D printers are harbingers of a new era, argue MIT colleagues Brynjolfsson (Director/Center for Digital Business; co-author, Wired for Innovation: How Information Technology Is Reshaping the Economy, 2013, etc.) and McAfee (Principal Research Scientist/Center for Digital Business; Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization's Toughest Challenges, 2009, etc.). Some 200 years ago, the invention of the steam engine sparked massive amounts of mechanical power to drive factories and mass production in the first machine age. Now, computers and other digital advances are providing such "a vast and unprecedented boost to mental power" that technologies once found only in science fiction are becoming everyday realities. Drawing on research, including interviews with inventors, investors, entrepreneurs, engineers and others, the authors describe the forces driving the emerging age, notably the digitization of nearly everything, which increases understanding and fosters innovation, and an amazing exponential growth in improvements. We're now seeing "the emergence of real, useful artificial intelligence (AI) and the connection of most of the people on the planet via a common digital network." As machines complete cognitive tasks--as opposed to physical ones--engaging in pattern recognition and complex communication, AI will do more and more, for example, giving key aspects of sight to the visually impaired and restoring hearing to the deaf. Along with benefits, including greater amounts of individual choice, technological progress will bring economic disruption, leaving some people behind and workers without jobs. The authors describe the large differences that are already apparent among people in both income and wealth and explain how individuals can improve their skills to maintain healthy wage and job prospects. "Our generation has inherited more opportunities to transform the world than any other," they write. "That's a cause for optimism, but only if we're mindful of our choices." Valuable reading for policymakers.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Choice Review
This book is essentially an elaborated version of the view of technological revolution presented in the authors' previous book, Race against the Machine (2011). Economist Richard Brinkman argued in Cultural Economics (1981) that culture is the store of knowledge and the source of exponentially advancing technological innovation and consequent economic growth. Brynjolfsson and McAfee (both, MIT) start with a similar premise and proceed to elaborate both the ways in which this rapid technological advance is manifested and its possible consequences. Whereas many economists have written pessimistically about the serious challenges to growing jobs in an environment in which automation is becoming more pervasive, these authors look forward to the opening up of new jobs and income opportunities that will generate continued healthy economic growth. They recognize that income inequality may arise from the transition, but they ultimately believe that Nixon-era solution, the negative income tax, could address this problem. This hopeful prognosis for a technologically advanced future will prove accessible to most any reader: the book is written in a wide-reaching style reminiscent of that of John Kenneth Galbraith or Paul Krugman. The authors' optimistic tone also recalls Marx's voice, persuasively arguing that technological advance may lead to a Utopian society. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers. --Satyananda J. Gabriel, Mount Holyoke College
Library Journal Review
Contending that technology is forcing the economy, people, and employers to reinvent themselves, Brynjolfsson and McAfee (coauthors, Race Against the Machine) merge economics with technology, review technology's development (e.g., Google's autonomous cars), discuss the economic effects of technology on society, and offer survival strategies such as overhauling education, training, and social and economic policies for the future economy and pairing human integrity with computers' processing power. Jeff Cummings's nicely paced reading holds listeners' attention. Verdict An optimistic and thought-provoking title for the generalist interested in economics, business, and technology.-Laurie Selwyn, formerly with Grayson Cty. Law Lib., Sherman, TX (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
