Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane

I've been following Brett King's work in the fintech (financial technology) space for some years now—most recently his 'Breaking Banks' book and podcast series. 'Augmented', with the able assistance of contributors Andy Lark, Alex Lightman and JP Rangaswami, takes Brett's exploration of technology evolution and its social impact into much broader territory than before—people's daily lives. It's all about how technology is adding to—and integrating with—our natural physical and mental abilities, transforming us into what in many ways (from a historical perspective) are superhumans. The book earns him a place as one of the pre-eminent futurists of recent years—alongside the likes of Peter Diamandis, Ray Kurzweil, Kevin Kelly, David Houle, Tom Friedman, John Naisbitt, Nicholas Negraponte, and the late Alvin Toffler.Reading 'Augmented' left me excited, optimistic, and at the same time unnerved at the tsunami of change that's about to slam into us, born of ever more rapidly advancing and converging IT, communications, artificial intelligence and machine learning, robotics, virtual and augmented reality, biotech, healthtech, nanotech, and of course fintech (the subject of a chapter in the book, but not front and center this time). More than anything, 'Augmented' left me with a sense of urgency to get ready for what's coming.This may come across as hyperbole, but it's not. These technologies in combination are going to radically change the way we live and work, and in short order. The changes are already here in multiple walks of life—we see them in the advent of self-driving cars, e-commerce, smart cities, and the sharing economy, to cite just a few examples. And we see them reflected in the neo Luddites, protectionists and nationalists who want to drag us back to the "good old days" (and somehow think that's possible). But the picture today is only a hint of what's to come. Crucially, hundreds of millions, or perhaps billions, of jobs all over the world—and not just the low-level ones—are either going away to be replaced by automation, or the skills required to do them will change beyond recognition.That means we're in for some social upheaval as reality confronts those who, for whatever reason, haven't stepped up to the changes. And of course there will be many like that. Where it all nets out is impossible to predict. But if you think the global political and economic situation in 2017 is disorderly (and you look at the roots of why that's the case), I can't see any scenario where it doesn't get significantly more disorderly for some years or even decades to come until the world finally settles into the Augmented Age—which it will, the way it eventually settled into the Industrial Age and the Information Age after it after their turbulent births.Those who do prepare, though, will be the ones who are positioned to survive and thrive in the Augmented Age. They'll be the ones who embrace change, continual learning and self improvement, and creativity over linear thinking. That's why 'Augmented' is a must-read: it's a first step to understanding and preparing for the near future. Brett's writing style is conversational and highly readable, so you don't need to be a technology geek, or even a futurism geek to appreciate this book. He also puts developments into a historical context, which makes them easier to understand. Although Brett's enthusiasm for the topic is impossible to conceal, he does a good job of avoiding hype and business buzzwords. I don't agree with everything Brett writes here, but I agree with most of it.Get this book. Read it, digest it. Surf the tsunami and don't get washed over by it.And Brett, how about an 'Augmented' podcast?

By @SimonCocking. We recently interviewed Brett King about his thoughts on FinTech, the future of banking and his views on a range of topics (see interview parts I and II). Meanwhile Brett has been keeping himself busy writing, and launching, on May 6th his fifth book “Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane“, which we now review below.Firstly the book is a good read and easily readable. It manages to straddle that tricky challenge of being informative for the tech audience at the same time as being interesting and appealing to a wider general audience too. In the time we had it to review it, the book was picked up and read by a range of other interested people. From 13 year old tech geeks, to managers of major cultural institutions, looking to future proof their own organisations. Which indicates this is a topic that interests a wide range of people.The book begins by taking you through a quick review of the last 250 years of technological innovation, with increasingly shorter cycles of relevance and then obsolescence for different inventions. Moore’s Law, Ray Kuzweil’s predictions of a coming Singularity, and other key trends are all referenced. If you are not familiar with these points of reference they are all explained in a way that again treads carefully between keeping the general reader on board and yet also informing the more tech savvy among the audience.His analysis of the imminent arrival of ubiquitous renewable energies is refreshing and positive. Coming at it from the perspective that cost will drive it’s mass adoption rather than needing to appeal to ecological considerations. King approaches the growth of AI (artificial intelligence) technologies from a similar perspective, namely that adoption will be driven by the fact that machine to machine transactions will simply be more effective and less error prone than human based interactions. Naturally this will have significant implications in terms of what sectors still need to employ humans and which won’t. These parts of the book are well worth reading to future proof your own potential career decisions!Drawing on current trends and their likely implications for the future King also analyses the impacts on transportation. Driverless cars are already with us, but in the future it could also free up large amounts of our time, in our ‘third place’, after home and work. Similarly with AI related quality of life improvements there are some very positive future scenarios for humanity in terms of increased time to pursue what interests us and what we care about, rather than merely living to work. Naturally Skynet and other robot distopias are always a possibility and Brett doesn’t shy away from looking at these possibilities too.Roadmap_AugmentedAge Road map to an Augmented Future, page 434Without wanting to give too much away this is a good book as it presents an interesting and thought provoking look at our near and further off future. Much of is it plausible, and as he says, he’s not looking to get it all 100% right, but rather to make us aware of the general direction in which our global societies are heading. Well worth a read, and one that you may find other family members reading too.If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at [email protected] or on Twitter: @SimonCocking

A technologically optimistic introduction to the Augmented Age. An age that will bring changes to how mankind utilizes technology, both to benefit the individual, wider society, the human species and the environment. King, Lightman, Rangaswami and Lark offer us a road map of the near future that paints a picture of mankind coexisting with advances in technology, where the technological developments improve our future outlook as opposed to shackling our progress as some technoluddites have erroneous suggested. You cannot read this book and not feel a sense of excitement that we are alive during the dawning of the Augmented Age.

Much anticipated new book from Brett that I preordered. More than met my expectations for a thought provoking read both professionally and personally... go beyond the book and follow the man fir his ongoing discussions and presentations. Extremely generous with his time agreeing to be interviewed by a friend's teenage daughter on the future of technology for their school project. Thank you Brett!

I have not finished the book yet. The idea it provides is profound. It encourages parents to be more open to modern technology when raising their children. For the new generation, AI and other new technology are like water to a fish. In other words, it is not heavy or strange.

Initially sceptical, not being familiar with author, was pleasantly surprised with the breadth of information and writing style. Although the author chooses to look at the bright side of the coming machine age, he makes the case for actions we can take now to ensure a better future. Augmentation is not only possible, it is inevitable.Readable, informative and necessary, Augmented by @Brettking is worthwhile.

Astonishing book, a quite stunning insight into the future. These guys are clearly genius brains and helped to spell out with clarity what lies ahead....surely this will become a text book to schools in no time