Rapid technology change set to bring benefits and dislocations
There will be an ever greater digital bounty, but robots may well replace workers and the gap between rich and poor will widen
Most people may only be dimly aware of it, but fundamental changes are being wrought by massively networked computers and robotics, and they are transforming society.
Some of us may still think technological innovation has plateaued and that we cannot expect new innovation to provide the kind of growth that technologies such as electricity did in the 20th century.
We may be in for a big surprise. In a new book, The Second Machine Age, authors Eric BrynJolfsson and Andrew McAffee, both directors of the MIT Centre for Digital Business, argue we are on the brink of a new wave of innovation.
Advances in computing power, network speeds and robotics are converging to make things possible which were unimaginable a few years ago.
Some of these new inventions are around us already or just around the corner. Just think driverless cars, or robots and computers which can win quiz shows and chess games against the greatest grand masters.
If the authors are right, the impact on society will be great as innovation makes and breaks jobs - mostly breaks jobs. The internet age is a winner-takes-all age; there is no room for runners-up. For example, we once used thousands of libraries but now we have just Amazon and Google books. Second-rank businesses tend to languish - think of Bing or Barnes and Noble. In compensation though there is a long tail, which allows businesses with small niches to survive, so experts in glazing armadillo shells or teaching Yamamami can now scrape a living.