The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies

As these figures make clear, digitization yields truly big data. In fact, if this kind of growth keeps up for much longer we’re going to run out of metric system.

The second machine age will be characterized by countless instances of machine intelligence and billions of interconnected brains working together to better understand and improve our world. It will make mockery out of all that came before.

One of our favorite quotes of his is, “I keep saying that the sexy job in the next ten years will be statisticians. And I’m not kidding.”21 When we look at the amount of digital data being created and think about how much more insight there is to be gained, we’re pretty sure he’s not wrong, either.

Hans Moravec has observed, “It is comparatively easy to make computers exhibit adult-level performance on intelligence tests or playing checkers, and difficult or impossible to give them the skills of a one-year-old when it comes to perception and mobility.”

Now comes the second machine age. Computers and other digital advances are doing for mental power—the ability to use our brains to understand and shape our environments—what the steam engine and its descendants did for muscle power.