Want to learn the ideas in The Second Machine Age better than ever? Read the world’s #1 book summary of The Second Machine Age by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee here.
Read a brief 1-Page Summary or watch video summaries curated by our expert team. Note: this book guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the publisher or author, and we always encourage you to purchase and read the full book.
Video Summaries of The Second Machine Age
We’ve scoured the Internet for the very best videos on The Second Machine Age, from high-quality videos summaries to interviews or commentary by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee.
1-Page Summary of The Second Machine Age
Technology and Human History
The most influential development in history is the Industrial Revolution. You are currently living through a second, comparable revolution that is changing how people use their minds to perform conceptual labor.
Digital technologies are the most amazing thing in the world, and they’re making our lives better. The Internet is a huge part of this because it gives us access to information from all over the world. However, with great power comes great responsibility; we have to be careful not to let technology take over our lives or make us lazy.
“The Second Machine Age”
In 2002, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) held a race in which people had to create cars that could drive themselves 150 miles through the Mojave Desert. None of those cars were successful because they didn’t go very far. In 2012, Google’s Chauffeur project produced self-driving cars that can drive on freeways in California traffic.
Computers have advanced over the years in many ways. For example, they can now process language and use general knowledge to complete tasks that were once considered “fiendishly difficult” or conceptually challenging. Nowadays, computers are also used for manual labor. The advances in computing power continue to accelerate as predicted by Gordon Moore in 1965. Moore’s Law still holds true today: Computers double their processing speeds every year or two, resulting in exponential growth of computer capacity that no technology has ever matched before.
Mass Digitalization
The invention of computers and the Internet has made it possible for people around the world to communicate with each other. It’s also enabled them to share information, which can be accessed by anyone who wants it. The cost of accessing this information is relatively cheap in comparison to books and magazines, so people are able to get access easily. This makes ideas more accessible than ever before. Children have access to vast stores of knowledge that were previously only available at libraries or bookstores, while professionals can use tools like search engines and social media sites (e.g., Twitter) to mine the past for new insights into history or current events
Innovation is important for a growing economy, and it’s debatable whether or not innovation is rising. Some thinkers believe that the easy innovations have already been discovered, while others argue that there are still plenty of innovations to be made. The difference between today’s information technology and past technologies like steam power and electricity is debated as well.
Innovation doesn’t necessarily mean coming up with something completely new. Many innovations emerge from recombining known elements in new ways, and digital technologies facilitate this trend by making it easier to combine ideas. For example, Quirky and Kaggle use digital platforms to offer problems for interested parties to solve, while NASA used Innocentive, an online venue for solving problems, to identify a better way to predict solar flares.
The Second Machine Age and the Economy
Adapting to new technology is challenging. For example, in the early days of electricity, people used it as a substitute for steam engines and put electric motors in their place. However, they didn’t change factory layouts since steam engines required specific arrangements and electric motors could be placed at each machine. Workflow was more important than power needs with electricity so managers reorganized factories according to workflow instead of energy needs.
For 30 years, firms made minimal changes to their productivity because of electricity. However, when they finally began making widespread efforts to integrate computers into their businesses and make them work better for them, productivity surged.
