The Second Machine Age

Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee argue that machines can now automate or augment cognitive tasks once reserved for humans, much as the first machine age, the Industrial Revolution, did for physical work. Continuing their earlier Race Against the Machine, they point to Google's autonomous cars and IBM's Watson beating top Jeopardy! players. The book has three parts. The first describes an economy that is digital, exponential and combinatorial. The second weighs its bounty against its spread, their term for growing inequality driven by skill-biased technical change, capital's rising share of income and superstar effects. The third proposes policies, including education reform. As in their earlier book, the authors advise people to race with machines rather than against them.

Michael Dell said the authors make the case for a future that is better than the world we inherited, and tied that optimism to technology, one of his favorite things. Dapps Inc CTO Dominic Steil also listed it in an interview on blockchain books.