Home › Books › A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and…
A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond
by
48/99
Critics
42/99
Readers
n/a
Scholars
13/99
Rating
84/99
Volume
30/99
Rating
54/99
Volume
—
Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.
About This Book
From an Oxford economist, a visionary account of how technology will transform the world of work, and what we should do about itFrom mechanical looms to the combustion engine to the first computers, new technologies have always provoked panic about workers being replaced by machines. For centuries, such fears have been misplaced, and many economists maintain that they remain so today. But as Daniel Susskind demonstrates, this time really is different. Breakthroughs in artificial intelligence mean that all kinds of jobs are increasingly at risk.Drawing on almost a decade of research in the field, Susskind argues that machines no longer need to think like us in order to outperform us, as was once widely believed. As a result, more and more tasks that used to be far beyond the capability of computers – from diagnosing illnesses to drafting legal contracts, from writing news reports to composing music – are coming within their reach. The threat of technological unemployment is now real.This is not necessarily a bad thing, Susskind emphasizes. Technological progress could bring about unprecedented prosperity, solving one of humanity's oldest problems: how to make sure that everyone has enough to live on. The challenges will be to distribute this prosperity fairly, to constrain the burgeoning power of Big Tech, and to provide meaning in a world where work is no longer the center of our lives. Perceptive, pragmatic, and ultimately hopeful, A World Without Work shows the way.
Preview
Reviews
"A thorough and sobering look at automation and the depreciation of human labor ..."
"Not all technologists or economists agree that AI will be nearly as disruptive to human labour as Susskind posits ..."
"the book should be required reading for any potential presidential candidate thinking about the economy of the future."
"While other writers make a strongly socialist, feminist or environmentalist case for a post-work world, he says simply that the jobs will go and we'll have to make the best of it."
"He also predicts that the worrisome power of tech companies will be political, not economic, and will merit a Political Power Oversight Authority based on moral philosophy."
"Susskind strong evidence that the progress of artificial intelligence (AI) will eventually result in markedly less work, and jobs, for people, and makes a compelling case that there are few jobs that cannot eventually be performed using AI ..."
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!