The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies by Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee

The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies, written by MIT Sloan School of Management professor Erik Brynjolfsson and co-author Andrew McAfee, explores the potentially profound implications of the digital revolution for human society. The book suggests that, though technology can increase individual productivity, it also has wider implications for the structure of the global economy, for the nature of markets, and for the way humans relate to one another.

The authors argue that the world has entered an era that is marked by the convergence of multiple technological revolutions, including the internet, mobile communications, artificial intelligence, robotics and 3D printing. These technologies have already had an unprecedented impact upon industry, economics and society, and they are set to continue to disrupt the nature of work and how we live our lives.

As Brynjolfsson and McAfee suggest, the ongoing technological transformation of the world is causing what they refer to as a ‘Great Decoupling’ of productivity and employment. That is to say, the machines are rapidly entering the workplace and are able to make humans obsolete in some areas whilst simultaneously increasing the potential for human productivity. This is resulting in a paradoxical situation in which productivity has increased significantly whilst employment levels have stagnated.

At its most basic, the machine age carries with it an increased level of automation, where machines are able to perform more work and with more accuracy than humans. In some cases, machines have even surpassed human capability. Here, the authors introduce an interesting concept known as “the competency paradox” in which a machine is shown to be capable of learning faster than humans but yet, unlike humans, it cannot “reason” and thus can never learn beyond the parameters that it was programmed with.

The authors further suggest that the machine age is responsible for the polarization of the labor market, with some jobs being completely taken over by machines and others remaining ‘job inadequate’, where the skills required are beyond the scope of a machine. This is causing a widening of the gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’, a phenomenon that the authors refer to as the ‘Great Divergence’. They also address the potential effect of the machine age on income distribution, both nationally and globally, with potential for a further widening of the gap between those who have access to the best technology and those that do not.

Whilst the book does not make a moral judgement upon the machine age’s impacts, Brynjolfsson and McAfee do attempt to explore the potential for a more equitable and human-centered approach to the utilization of technology, in order to ensure that the machine age has a net benefit to society. This involves, amongst other initiatives, the reconsideration of labor laws, the redefining of property rights and the incentivization of particular forms of behavior.

In conclusion, Brynjolfsson and McAfee’s book provides a compelling analysis of the implications of the ongoing technological revolution and the potential implications that it has for the economy, employment and society. Whilst there is certainly no shortage of challenges in navigating the transformation towards a machine age economy, the authors offer a compelling and interesting set of ideas that are worthy of further consideration.