Warning: Constant WPCF7_VALIDATE_CONFIGURATION already defined in /home2/ltg37jq5/public_html/wp-config.php on line 92
Martin Ford « Limits to Growth

Some Believe Life Will Improve for All in the Automated Future

One of the reactions to the dire predictions of mass unemployment in the automated future is to claim that it won’t be a problem at all. Just institute universal basic income (UBI), the pollyannas say, and everyone will be happy with their free money, and the machines will be doing all the work — utopia!

[…]

Only One 2020 Presidential Candidate Has Warned America about Automation

Martin Ford is a technology expert and writer whose 2015 book Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future woke up a lot of people about the fundamental changes automation will bring to the workplace and employment economy.

The book got my attention in particular about how insane it is to […]

World of Work Faces “Global Crisis” from Automation

Martin Ford, the technology expert whose 2016 book Rise of the Robots woke up a lot of people to the automation risk, is continuing to speak to audiences warning them about the threat of a jobless future.

He recently spoke in Armenia to discuss the topic as described below — but perhaps he should be […]

Pain from Automation Job Loss Will Hit the Third World Harder

In the roboticized, automated and artificially intelligent future that the world faces, Third World nations will have even fewer possibilities for coping than more advanced countries. Africa, for example, now offers cheap labor for manufacturing, and the Economist called the continent An awakening giant in 2014.

However, Africa’s industrial boomlet may be cut short by […]

Artificial Intelligence Is Analyzed for Its Future Effects

In 2015, Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future was published and got a lot of attention for its dire forecast that was specific and well argued. Now, author Martin Ford is back with the next chapter of advanced machines, namely artificial intelligence (AI), with the book Architects of Intelligence: […]

Tech Expert Martin Ford Discusses Robots in the Retail Sector

In 2015, Martin Ford wrote the book Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future, a work that got a lot of attention because of its detailed warnings about an economy totally transformed by automation. Big tech, business and the general public continue to be interested in what Ford has to […]

Socialist Sweden Finds Automation Unthreatening

The New York Times had an interesting cultural analysis about automation in Sweden, where the workers appear not to fear they will be made unemployed by smart machines. Americans, by contrast, are suspicious about the effects of automation according to a recent Pew poll, with more than 70 percent admitting they worried about job loss, […]

Self-Driving Trucks Will Be a Part of Unprecedented Social Change

It was nice to see the Los Angeles Times recognize the negative effect of self-driving cars and trucks which will cause severe job loss, as shown by a front-page story on Wednesday.

A lot of reporting over the last few years has had too much fan-boy wonderment at the rapid growth of admittedly amazing technology. […]

The Social Contract Spotlights Automation and Immigration

A few months ago, I worked with The Social Contract quarterly to produce an issue with a section discussing the topic of how automation affects America’s need for immigration. The result was the Fall 2016 issue, subtitled “When Robots Replace Humans.”

After writing dozens of blogs for LimitsToGrowth.org about rapidly advancing automation, robots and computer […]