A brave new automated world
But will the benefits be shared broadly?
Google wants robot workers, and is testing self-driving cars. Amazon plans to send drones to deliver digital book readers, and is already running warehouses that treat humans as if they were robots.
Meanwhile, the gap between rich and poor is widening globally.
Corporate profits and unemployment are both up. Paul Krugman argues that this is due to a combination of increased automation and monopolistic forces, spurred by new technologies that are replacing repetitive labor with machines.
The question for the next decade is, will humanity share the wealth generated by this savings in labor costs? Will the benefits be passed on to consumers, employees, and to the general public, in the form of a strengthened safety net? And will the decrease in repetitive labor be replaced with creative work?
