Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future
Written by Martin Ford
Narrated by Jeff Cummings
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
In a world of self-driving cars and big data, smart algorithms and Siri, we know that artificial intelligence is getting smarter every day. Though all these nifty devices and programs might make our lives easier, they're also well on their way to making "good" jobs obsolete. A computer winning Jeopardy might seem like a trivial, if impressive, feat, but the same technology is making paralegals redundant as it undertakes electronic discovery, and is soon to do the same for radiologists. And that, no doubt, will only be the beginning.
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?
The more Pollyannaish, or just simply uninformed, might imagine that this industrial revolution will unfold like the last: even as some jobs are eliminated, more will be created to deal with the new devices of a new era. In Rise of the Robots, Martin Ford argues that is absolutely not the case. Increasingly, machines will be able to take care of themselves, and fewer jobs will be necessary. The effects of this transition could be shattering. Unless we begin to radically reassess the fundamentals of how our economy works, we could have both an enormous population of the unemployed-the truck drivers, warehouse workers, cooks, lawyers, doctors, teachers, programmers, and many, many more, whose labors have been rendered superfluous by automated and intelligent machines-and a general economy that, bereft of consumers, implodes under the weight of its own contradictions. We are at an inflection point-do we continue to listen to those who argue that nothing fundamental has changed, and take a bad bet on a miserable future, or do we begin to discuss what we must do to ensure all of us, and not just the few, benefit from the awesome power of artificial intelligence? The time to choose is now.
Rise of the Robots is a both an exploration of this new technology and a call to arms to address its implications. Written by a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur, this is a book that cannot be dismissed as the ranting of a Luddite or an outsider. Ford has seen the future, and he knows that for some of us, the rise of the robots will be very frightening indeed.
Martin Ford
Martin Ford, the founder of a Silicon Valley–based software development fi rm, has over twenty-fi ve years of experience in computer design and software development. The author of The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology, and the Economy of the Future, and he lives in Sunnyvale, California.
Related to Rise of the Robots
Related audiobooks
A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Industries of the Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/52030: How Today's Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5WTF?: What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Augmented: Life in The Smart Lane Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Capitalism Without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Raging 2020s: Companies, Countries, People - and the Fight for Our Future Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Raising the Floor: How a Universal Basic Income Can Renew Our Economy and Rebuild the American Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Silicon States: The Power and Politics of Big Tech and What It Means for Our Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Smartest Places on Earth: Why Rustbelts Are the Emerging Hotspots of Global Innovation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Information Trade: How Big Tech Conquers Countries, Challenges Our Rights, and Transforms Our World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Troublemakers: Silicon Valley's Coming of Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Microtrends Squared: The New Small Forces Driving the Big Disruptions Today Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Only Humans Need Apply: Winners and Losers in the Age of Smart Machines Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen AI Rules the World: China, the U.S., and the Race to Control a Smart Planet Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Resource Revolution: How to Capture the Biggest Business Opportunity in a Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power Is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5No Ordinary Disruption: The Four Global Forces Breaking All the Trends Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sentient Machine: The Coming Age of Artificial Intelligence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blockchain: The Next Everything Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gigged: The End of the Job and the Future of Work Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life After Google: The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Deep Learning Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Economics For You
Chip War: The Quest to Dominate the World's Most Critical Technology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Economics 101: How the World Works Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed or Fail Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How the World Works Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freakonomics Rev Ed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Meth Lunches: Food and Longing in an American City Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5These are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs—and Wrecks—America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Genius of Israel: The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Marvel Comics: The Untold Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don't Trust Your Gut: Using Data to Get What You Really Want in Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Men Without Work: America's Invisible Crisis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nudge: The Final Edition: Improving Decisions About Money, Health, And The Environment Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why the Rich Are Getting Richer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Case Against Socialism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Forgotten Man: A New History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Rise of the Robots
97 ratings9 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I fucking loved this mother fucking book that I will recommend it
3 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5great book... totally makes you think about your kids prospects in a world that is being mechanised and automated. it's a clarion call for civic leaders, folks in the technology industry, folks in the retail industry, heck- he basically hits everyone. I'll definitely come back to the one a few times over!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5While the subject matter was great, the author talked about climate change, the economy, sociology and politics away too much.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Many people don’t believe that automation will have a large impact on our society in the near future or ever but those people would learn a lot by reading this book. He covers so many aspects of how it’s going to change everything and likely pretty soon. If you like learning about or thinking about what the future holds for us, this is a must-read.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great book to know what’s coming in every work field.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Well researched and thought out. Very interesting and insightful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's a good book, interesting ideas, but if you follow the progress of AI and robotic in blogs and websites dedicated to advance technologys you will not find news ideas in this books, but if you are not a tech person but, if you want to find what are the new trends in technology, if you have kids and whant to see what there future could be, it will be a good book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Superb book. Very good narrator and packed with scenarios about the future.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good, The bad, The Ugly about Robots and our future!
The idea I loved is that “in the future, the less we rely on humain, there will be less money to spend, thus, less incentive to invest on robotics” if this is the case, there is than an equilibrium in sight?