“Have you heard about ______ ?”
“You’ve got to check out ______ !”
SUCH THE STUFF OF LIFE. They’re how we
learn about new things from our friends and colleagues, and how
we spread the word about exciting things we’ve come across.
Traditionally, such ‘cool hunting’ ended with the name of a band,
a restaurant or a movie. But in the digital age, sentences like
these frequently end with the name of a website or a new gadget;
was given a PDA with an external GPS device pre-installed with
navigation software. His initial excitement quickly gave way to
disappointment: the product didn’t the dynamic changes
that characterize real conditions on the road. Ehud decided to
take matters into his own hands. His goal? To accurately
the road system, state of and all the other information rel-
evant to drivers at any given moment.
Anyone who has used a traditional GPS system will recog-
nize Ehud’s frustration. Yes, they know your precise location;
The Digitization
of Just About
Everything
The authors discuss three fundamental forces enabling
what they call ‘the second machine age’.
By Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee
ROT275
