3 ms·

Looking for a summary? Read this wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_future_doesn%27t_need_us http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_future_doesn%27t

• FrojoS 16y ago
  Thanks! Very interesting. From the WP article: "Martin Ford author of The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future [6] makes the case that the risk posed by accelerating technology may be primarily economic in nature. Ford argues that before technology reaches the point where it represents a physical existential threat, it will become possible to automate nearly all routine and repetitive jobs in the economy." I find this, for short or medium time scales, quite likely, too. There will always be a demand for high skilled humans. Maybe even after the machines are the new bosses. But if we don't make groundbreaking progress in human learning techniques, most people will have trouble to learn these skills fast enough. Then he writes further: "In the absence of a major reform to the capitalist system, this could result in massive unemployment, plunging consumer spending and confidence, and an economic crisis potentially even more severe than the Great Depression. If such a crisis were to occur, subsequent technological progress would dramatically slow because there would be insufficient incentive to invest in innovation." This sounds somewhat plausible but I don't believe it. The trend goes towards highly profitable mega corporations. Governments, and with it most people, become less powerful in economic terms. I think we can already see this effect very well. So there won't necessary be a recession. As long as the rich find ways to spend their money - like flying to Mars.