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posted by cmn32480 on Monday June 08 2015, @10:57AM   Printer-friendly
from the how-many-robots-does-it-take-to-screw-in-a-lightbulb dept.

Digital technology has been a fantastic creator of economic wealth, particularly in the twenty years since the Internet and World Wide Web were unveiled to the masses. And with non-trivial applications of artificial intelligence (such as Apple's Siri) finally reaching the mainstream consumer market, one is tempted to agree with pundits asserting that the Second Machine Age is just getting underway.

But Yale ethicist Wendell Wallach argues that growth in wealth has been accompanied by an equally dramatic rise in income inequality; for example, stock ownership is now concentrated in the hands of a relative few (though greater than 1 percent). The increase in GDP has not led to an increase in wages, nor in median inflation-adjusted income. Furthermore, Wallach says technology is a leading cause of this shift, as it displaces workers in occupation after occupation more quickly than new career opportunities arise.

This piece led to the latest iteration of the 'will robots take all of our jobs' debate, this time on Business Insider, with Jim Edwards arguing that the jobs lost tended to be of the mindless and repetitive variety, while the increase in productive capacity has led to the creation of many new positions. This repeated earlier cycles of the industrial revolution and will be accelerated in the decades ahead. Edwards illustrated his point with a chart of UK unemployment with a trend line (note: drawn by Edwards) in a pronounced downward direction over the past 30 years. John Tamny made a similar point in Forbes last month.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 08 2015, @09:01PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 08 2015, @09:01PM (#193814)

    seriously. do you think mankind sprang forth from zeus' head fully formed into a society with centralized governing powers? hell no. ape men roamed freely - killing, eating, and fucking at will. one ape man said to another "hey, if we, like team-up, we are more likely to be successful in our killing, eating, and fucking." eventually, another victimized ape man (or woman) realizes they can 'team-up' too. they defeat the marauders the next time they come a pillaging. "Three cheers for !!! Let's make him/her king/queen! Cuz they so smart!"

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2015, @09:12AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2015, @09:12AM (#194021)

    seriously. do you think mankind sprang forth from zeus' head fully formed into a society with centralized governing powers?

    No, mankind evolved from apes which already were living in groups with social structures, including leaders. It's already in our genes. All our intelligence and civilization did was to enable us to form larger and more complex groups than before.