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A review by greg_talbot
The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies by Andrew McAfee, Erik Brynjolfsson
5.0
Truly one of those books that just ties all these huge themes of technology, business and culture together.
The first book explores how to frame the AI revolution. We see the beginnings of this technology in the digitization of our experiences. This self-data that we publish into Facebook and Instragram is a sellable market research. As a consumer, it is exciting to see the optimization of product recommendations, dating partners, meetup groups or anything that we seek. And it's just the beginning.
Brynjolfsson states that steam propelled the industrial revolution in ways that we could not immediately comprehend. But as the myth of John Henry tells us, industrialization of labor changed the very kind of work we do. The analogy holds for the AI revolution. The type of work we are doing, and our identity is undergoing a dramatic change.
Technology's value to expand workforce production and our economy is tied to the underlying implemenation of this new suite of general purpose technologies. Brynjolfsson develops a theory of progress - that recombinate technologies, applying different lens and perspectives on the underlying tools can skyrocket innovation. Some of the "unbreakable" NASA and kaggle projects reviewed are cracked - by individuals with limited expertise in the focused area. Simialrly, we should expect dramatic updates to AI, Internet of Things, virtual reality, machine learning and quantum computer, but likely not in ways we think.
The second half of the book is just as riveting. The AI revolution will demand political action if democracy will survive. The extreme inequality of the .1% and the working class will likely get worse. We are given some perspectives to consider the means of production in this technocrat class. Ethical considerations and educating our young people to be prepared for this economy is prudent and necessary.
Ultimately a very thought-provoking book.
The first book explores how to frame the AI revolution. We see the beginnings of this technology in the digitization of our experiences. This self-data that we publish into Facebook and Instragram is a sellable market research. As a consumer, it is exciting to see the optimization of product recommendations, dating partners, meetup groups or anything that we seek. And it's just the beginning.
Brynjolfsson states that steam propelled the industrial revolution in ways that we could not immediately comprehend. But as the myth of John Henry tells us, industrialization of labor changed the very kind of work we do. The analogy holds for the AI revolution. The type of work we are doing, and our identity is undergoing a dramatic change.
Technology's value to expand workforce production and our economy is tied to the underlying implemenation of this new suite of general purpose technologies. Brynjolfsson develops a theory of progress - that recombinate technologies, applying different lens and perspectives on the underlying tools can skyrocket innovation. Some of the "unbreakable" NASA and kaggle projects reviewed are cracked - by individuals with limited expertise in the focused area. Simialrly, we should expect dramatic updates to AI, Internet of Things, virtual reality, machine learning and quantum computer, but likely not in ways we think.
The second half of the book is just as riveting. The AI revolution will demand political action if democracy will survive. The extreme inequality of the .1% and the working class will likely get worse. We are given some perspectives to consider the means of production in this technocrat class. Ethical considerations and educating our young people to be prepared for this economy is prudent and necessary.
Ultimately a very thought-provoking book.