當許多過去只存在於科幻電影裡的情節，如今一幕幕走進我們的真實世界，
我們除了讚嘆科技帶來的驚奇，也難免心生人腦被機器替代的恐懼。
關於智慧科技，《金融時報》首席經濟評論馬丁 ‧ 沃夫（Martin Wolf）認為，除非我們瞭解其中的風險，否則人類將會付出慘重的代價。智慧科技蘊涵下一波經濟榮景的豐沛動能，但也暗藏貧富不均的潛因。不管是經濟、基礎建設、生物、社會、存在主義等各層面，我們勢必遭遇種種挑戰。而不管是個人、企業和政府，都有必須面對的課題。
身處第二次機器時代的我們，擁有更多改變世界的機會，但也應更深入思考，我們究竟想要什麼？人類真正的價值是什麼？唯有審慎選擇，才有樂觀的可能。
工業革命揭開第一次機器時代的序幕，
機器取代人力，衝擊工廠的藍領勞工；
智慧科技引領第二次機器時代的開展，
機器取代人腦，辦公室的白領工作是否即將不保？
在下一波智慧科技榮景裡，
與其擔心機器人搶走你的飯碗，
不如思考如何分到最大的一塊餅。
未來，最懂得與機器合作的人贏！
--中文簡介取自中譯本《第二次機器時代》天下文化出版
A revolution is under way.
In recent years, Google’s autonomous cars have logged thousands of miles on American highways and IBM’s Watson trounced the best human Jeopardy! players. Digital technologies — with hardware,
software, and networks at their core — will in the near future diagnose diseases more accurately than doctors can, apply enormous data sets to transform retailing, and accomplish many tasks
once considered uniquely human.
In The Second Machine Age MIT’s Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee — two thinkers at the forefront of their field — reveal the forces driving the reinvention of our lives and our economy. As
the full impact of digital technologies is felt, we will realize immense bounty in the form of dazzling personal technology, advanced infrastructure, and near-boundless access to the cultural
items that enrich our lives.
Amid this bounty will also be wrenching change. Professions of all kinds — from lawyers to truck drivers — will be forever upended. Companies will be forced to transform or die. Recent
economic indicators reflect this shift: fewer people are working, and wages are falling even as productivity and profits soar.
Drawing on years of research and up-to-the-minute trends, Brynjolfsson and McAfee identify the best strategies for survival and offer a new path to prosperity. These include revamping
education so that it prepares people for the next economy instead of the last one, designing new collaborations that pair brute processing power with human ingenuity, and embracing policies
that make sense in a radically transformed landscape.
A fundamentally optimistic book, The Second Machine Age will alter how we think about issues of technological, societal, and economic progress.
