Book Byte #104 "A World Without Work" by Daniel Susskind
Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond
📣 Curious Quotes from the Author
“The income from traditional capital is even more unevenly shared out across society than the income from salaries and wages. This fact is true ‘without exception’, notes Thomas Piketty, in all countries and at all times for which data is available.”
“The future , they say ; holds both obsolescence and ever-greater relevance ; technology is a threat and an opportunity ; a rival and a partner , a foe and a friend”
“Teachers cannot tailor their material to the specific needs of every student, so in fact the education provided tends to be ‘one size fits none’. This is particularly frustrating because tailored tuition is known to be very effective: an average student who receives one-to-one tuition will tend to outperform 98 per cent of ordinary students in a traditional classroom.”
“When Sebastian Thrun taught his computer science class to 200 Stanford students, and then to 160,000 non-Stanford students online, the top Stanford student ranked a measly 413th. ‘My God,’ cried Thrun on seeing this, ‘for every great Stanford student, there’s 412 amazingly great, even better students in the world.
📚 Cognition of the Book’s Big Idea:
Automation will have far-reaching consequences for the future of labor. As computers teach themselves to perform tasks that we previously thought were beyond their capabilities, the labor market is undergoing massive transition, rendering human labor obsolete. To assist those who will experience unemployment, the state should shift revenue from top incomes and capital owners to the general population.
Look to use technology to increase production. People in high-skilled occupations, such as software engineers, frequently employ technology, including AI, to increase their productivity. However, chances to use technology for monotonous, high-volume work exist in all fields. Consider employing software to scan documents, organize data, or identify patterns that you may not be able to detect without the assistance of a computer.
🛠️Fixing the Tech Industry
Technology will always be a threat, but it will also always be an opportunity. Given how our Industry has disrupted so much in the short time the Internet has been invented, we’ll see even more industries be disrupted by AI.
It’s a motor of change, and most change overall is good for society. As we follow through and figure out what are values should be going forward, I would suggest curiosity, a spirit of collaboration and always be learning.
🤝Collaborate with others with this Social Media Prompt:
What do you think will be the next big invention of the 2020’s?
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