Martin Ford: Rise of the Robots (2016, Basic Books)
paperback, 368 pages
Published July 12, 2016 by Basic Books.
Examines the effects of accelerating technology on the economic system.
"In Silicon Valley the phrase "disruptive technology" is tossed around on a casual basis. No one doubts that technology has the power to devastate entire industries and upend various sectors of the job market. But Rise of the Robots asks a bigger question: Can accelerating technology disrupt our entire economic system to the point where a fundamental restructuring is required? Companies like Facebook and YouTube may only need a handful of employees to achieve enormous valuations, but what will be the fate of those of us not lucky or smart enough to have gotten into the great shift from human labor to computation?"--
A robust, evidence-based journey through the key arcs of the rise of technology, in particular robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, couple with major labour market disruption and stagnation. My only criticism of this engaging, accessible and well argued tome is that it offers only one broad solution to the problems articulated - universal income, and slight variations thereof.
