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A review by hagbard_celine
Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future by Martin Ford
2.0
Ehhh. This is not actually a book about robots; it's a book about income inequality. And I'm not persuaded by the author's argument(s) that income inequality is the Great Satan.
So robots are here, and soon there will be more of them, and they'll be way better, and they'll replace humans in large sectors of the economy. Alright. That seems true.
Therefore, he says, the rise of robots will usher in even greater inequality for a handful of reasons. Ehhhhh. Plausible, but I'm not sure it's as inevitable as the author claims. I can imagine a world wherein more benefit from economic activity goes to capital instead of labor because of robots, but I also leave plenty of room for the future's adaptations to surprise me.
THEREFORE, we should do things to address inequality. Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I am not convinced. I'm not really concerned with relative wealth; absolute wealth seems to be the thing that matters. How much food do *I* have to eat? How much fun is *my* life to live? If I am having a great time, does it *really* matter that Warren Buffett is 1,000,000,000 times wealthier than I am?
I don't think so. And if the scary thing about robots is that they will make everything cheaper (better, faster, less resource-intensive, etc), then it seems like people will tend to be absolutely better off.
I, for one, welcome our robot overlords.
So robots are here, and soon there will be more of them, and they'll be way better, and they'll replace humans in large sectors of the economy. Alright. That seems true.
Therefore, he says, the rise of robots will usher in even greater inequality for a handful of reasons. Ehhhhh. Plausible, but I'm not sure it's as inevitable as the author claims. I can imagine a world wherein more benefit from economic activity goes to capital instead of labor because of robots, but I also leave plenty of room for the future's adaptations to surprise me.
THEREFORE, we should do things to address inequality. Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I am not convinced. I'm not really concerned with relative wealth; absolute wealth seems to be the thing that matters. How much food do *I* have to eat? How much fun is *my* life to live? If I am having a great time, does it *really* matter that Warren Buffett is 1,000,000,000 times wealthier than I am?
I don't think so. And if the scary thing about robots is that they will make everything cheaper (better, faster, less resource-intensive, etc), then it seems like people will tend to be absolutely better off.
I, for one, welcome our robot overlords.