Thinking Allowed

medical / technology / education / art / flub

The rise of the robots Excellent read but of a gloomy dystopian future where robots and software take over manual tasks

The rise of the robots

Excellent read but of a gloomy dystopian future where robots and software take over manual tasks (as they already have done) and also skilled labour displacing even highly skilled jobs in time. Healthcare might survive a little longer but physicians assistants empowered by cloud-based AI tools could reduce the role of doctor to someone with good communication skills. The robots and IT are likely to be owned by a wealthy elite unless some radical changes take place in our economy and politics -some of which seem very unlikely at present.

One message that might get across is that we rely on mass markets of consumers. With money being concentrated in the top 1% and robots owned by factory owners there won't be much consumption unless we focus purely on luxury goods like some bizarre feudal society.

Read with interest accounts of IT developments.

Genetic programming - algorithms that develop by themselves improving all the time.

Google have a near perfect English to Portuguese spoken language translation tool. (Skype has an English Spanish one too http://www.popsci.com/how-microsofts-machine-learning-breaking-language-barrier). Highly skilled workers in other countries could offshore a wider range of jobs. Virtual immigration.


Source: www.amazon.co.uk

robots skilled owned unless english jobs highly read