<P> The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies is a 2014 book by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee which is a continuation of their book Race Against the Machine . They argue that the Second Machine Age involves the automation of a lot of cognitive tasks that make humans and software - driven machines substitutes, rather than complements . They contrast this with what they call the "First Machine Age", or Industrial Revolution, which helped make labor and machines complementary . </P> <P> Some examples that the book cites include "software that grades students' essays more objectively, consistently and quickly than humans" and "news articles on Forbes.com about corporate earnings previews"--"all generated by algorithms without human involvement ." </P> <P> The authors summarize the contents of their book's 15 chapters on pages 11 and 12 of the book itself . </P> <P> According to the authors, the book has three sections . Chapters 1 through 6 describe "the fundamental characteristics of the second machine age," based on many examples of modern use of technology . Then chapters 7 through 11 describe economic impacts of technology in terms of two concepts the authors call "bounty" and "spread ." What the authors call "bounty" is their attempt to measure the benefits of new technology in ways reaching beyond such measures as GDP, which they say is inadequate . They use "spread" as a shorthand way to describe the increasing inequality that is also resulting from widespread new technology . </P>

The second machine age work progress and prosperity in a time of brilliant technologie