Book
Rise of the robots : Technology and the threat of a jobless future
Record details
- ISBN: 9780465059997 (hardcover)
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Physical Description:
print
xviii, 334 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. - Publisher: New York : Basic Books, a member of the Pereus Books Group, 2015.
Content descriptions
| Formatted Contents Note: | Introduction -- ch. 1 Automation wave -- ch. 2 Is this time different? -- ch. 3 Information technology: an unprecedented force for disruption -- ch. 4 White-Collar jobs at risk -- ch. 5 Transforming higher education -- ch. 6 Health care challenge -- ch. 7 Technologies and industries of the future -- ch. 8 Consumers, limits to growth and crisis? -- ch. 9 Super-intelligence and the singularity -- ch. 10 Toward a new economic paradigm -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Labor supply -- Effect of automation on Labor supply -- Effect of technological innovations on Employment forecasting Technological innovations -- Economic aspects |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at University College of the North Libraries.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Other Formats and Editions
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Pas Campus Library | HD 6331 .F58 2015 (Text) | 58500000445130 | Stacks | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2015 April #2
Though economists have generally tied increased productivity to higher wages, workers have fretted about the impact of automation on jobs. Ford, founder of a software development company, offers a very troubling view of the future of the American workforce as trends in automation outpace Moore's Law, which asserts that computing power doubles every 18 to 24 months. Worker robots, humanoid manufacturing robots, artificial intelligence, 3-D printing, cloud robotics, and other developments promise a continuation of stagnant wages, declining labor-force participation, diminishing job creation, and rising inequality. Ford details the disastrous implications for the American workforce, even white-collar workers once thought to be safe from the threat of automation. Technological advancements have seen robots go from filling and stacking boxes to making gourmet hamburgers and reading radiology film. It's only a matter of time before they can perform the duties of doctors, lawyers, journalists, and other professionals. Although these advancements cannot be stopped, Ford offers ideas on changes in social policies, including guaranteed income, to keep our economy humming and prepare ourselves for a more automated future. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews. - Choice Reviews : Choice Reviews 2015 September
Ford, a computer designer and software developer, provides a thought-provoking account of how advances in technology challenge conventional understanding of existing economic and workforce models. His book presents a series of scenarios and examples that illustrate the accelerated speed at which technology influences contemporary society. In some detail, Ford outlines how current advances in automation, big data, cognitive computing, and artificial intelligence are "likely [to] threaten jobs across industries and at a wide range of skill levels," including white-collar jobs. He argues that increasing income inequality will have a detrimental impact on economic growth in a consumer-driven economy because consumers will no longer be able to afford the products and services offered.  Ford concludes with a series of suggestions (e.g., guaranteed income, education as a public good) for how economic policies can potentially counter these negative effects. The book may serve as a good start for anyone who is curious about advances in technology, economics, and the future of work. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers.
--C. Winkler, Baruch College
Christoph Winkler
Baruch College
http://dx.doi.org/10.5860/CHOICE.192294
Copyright 2014 American Library Association. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2015 March #2
Noted technological maven and futurist Ford (The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future, 2009) returns with more reasons for working men and women to fear for their futures. Imagine a world in which the want ads, if they appear at all, simply read: "Humans Need Not Apply." That nightmarish scenario might be enough to cause all but the idle rich to lay awake at night. The most terrifying thing about the author's fearful forecast, however, is that this dystopian futureâwhere shrewdly sophisticated and ruthlessly cost-effective robots eliminate the need for those anachronistic things once called "jobs"âsounds much more inevitable than incredible. For both scientific and economic reasons, which Ford outlines with a comprehensiveness that borders on chilling, there is simply no way in this relentlessly capitalist society to avoid being replaced by a robot. In the labor pyramid to come, even some of the lucky few occupyin g the white-collar pinnacle will not be safe. Ford's argument is frightening because it does not offer even a whiff of alarm or hysteria. Instead, the author's discourse feels as dispassionate and merciless as the circuitry silently running inside his subjects' metallically whirring bodies. Humankind's inescapable predicament appears so bleak that the only alternative to total societal collapse that Ford can identify is to fashion a system in which the great majority of the working class receives "a basic income guarantee." Elected officialsâfrom President Barack Obama all the way down to a small-town mayorâmay steadfastly bang the drum for more education and training as the way out of the unemployment morass, but Ford clearly demonstrates that free market forces and consumer demand (already on display in Amazon's increasingly automated warehouses) will soon make it nearly impossible to continue employing large numbers of human beings in the workplace. A careful a nd courageous examination of automation and its possible impact on society. Copyright Kirkus 2015 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.
