Such forecasts are easy to dismiss. Their alarmist tone echoes the refrain heard time and again since the eighteenth century. Out of every economic downturn rises the specter of a job-munching Frankenstein monster. And then, when the economic cycle emerges from its trough and jobs return, the monster goes back in its cage and the worries subside. This time, though, the economy isn’t behaving as it normally does. Mounting evidence suggests that a troubling new dynamic may be at work. Joining Brynjolfsson and McAfee, several prominent economists have begun questioning their profession’s cherished assumption that technology-fueled productivity gains will bring job and wage growth. They point out that over the last decade U.S. productivity rose at a faster pace than we saw in the preceding thirty years, that corporate profits have hit levels we haven’t seen in half a century, and that business investments in new equipment have been rising sharply. That combination should bring robust employment growth. And yet the total number of jobs in the country has barely budged. Growth and employment are “diverging in advanced countries,” says economist Michael Spence, a Nobel laureate, and technology is the main reason why: “The replacement of routine manual jobs by machines and robots is a powerful, continuing, and perhaps accelerating trend in manufacturing and logistics, while networks of computers are replacing routine white-collar jobs in information processing.”
On one hand, historical precedence has shown that every major technological shift has not resulted in massive unemployment and job loss. On the other hand, technology has progressed so rapidly in the past few decades and for the first time, is able to actually replace certain cognitive functions of humans.
In this book, it covers the possible perils and negative effects automation has on us. It is not just about the economy, as usually covered on media, but also the way automation can impact the way we live and think.
