Rise of the Robots

Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future

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By Martin Ford

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This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around May 5, 2015. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

The New York Times-bestselling guide to how automation is changing the economy, undermining work, and reshaping our lives

Winner of Best Business Book of the Year awards from the Financial Times and from Forbes

“Lucid, comprehensive, and unafraid . . . ;an indispensable contribution to a long-running argument.” — Los Angeles Times

What are the jobs of the future? How many will there be? And who will have them? As technology continues to accelerate and machines begin taking care of themselves, fewer people will be necessary. Artificial intelligence is already well on its way to making “good jobs” obsolete: many paralegals, journalists, office workers, and even computer programmers are poised to be replaced by robots and smart software. As progress continues, blue and white collar jobs alike will evaporate, squeezing working — and middle-class families ever further. At the same time, households are under assault from exploding costs, especially from the two major industries-education and health care-that, so far, have not been transformed by information technology. The result could well be massive unemployment and inequality as well as the implosion of the consumer economy itself.

The past solutions to technological disruption, especially more training and education, aren’t going to work. We must decide, now, whether the future will see broad-based prosperity or catastrophic levels of inequality and economic insecurity. Rise of the Robots is essential reading to understand what accelerating technology means for our economic prospects-not to mention those of our children-as well as for society as a whole.
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On Sale
May 5, 2015
Page Count
352 pages
Publisher
Basic Books
ISBN-13
9780465040674

Martin Ford

About the Author

Martin Ford is the founder of a Silicon Valley-based software development firm. He is the author of Rise of the Robots, which won the FT Business Book of the Year Award; The Lights in the Tunnel; and Architects of Intelligence. Ford lives in Sunnyvale, California.

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