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A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond
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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.
Reviews
"Susskind's economic perspective makes the conundrum crystal clear, and he makes a convincing and illuminating argument to decelerate the onset of global 'automation anxiety' ..."
"He compresses the history of capitalism—with a bloody record of enclosing the commons, accumulation by dispossession, slavery, and rebellion after rebellion—into one where, 'when machines drove human beings from a traditional life on the fields, those people transitioned into manufacturing with relative ease' ..."
"This work is sure to be controversial, but it will find an audience with those interested in public policy relating to unemployment and inequality."
"He always has a helpful graph to hand and a greatest hits collection of anecdotes about technology and society ..."
"For a world short on paid work, Oxford economist Susskind advocates a conditional basic income to avoid inequality and provide nonworkers with ways to contribute to society."
"This dense but lively investigation is not for the reader who wants an easy dinner-party answer, but the curious worrier or the skeptic who wants to understand the theory behind the machines will want to take a look."
"Susskind declares that machines are getting so smart that they'll soon replace humans at a growing list of jobs, potentially including doctors, bricklayers and insurance adjusters ..."
"Not all technologists or economists agree that AI will be nearly as disruptive to human labour as Susskind posits ..."
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