ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
BRIAN KANTOR: Reimagining a life of work, leisure and abundance in the age of robots
The pace of technological and scientific change is accelerating. Robots controlled by powerful computers have invaded the factory floor, warehouses and distribution centres with great effectiveness. The number of workers employed in traditional occupations has accordingly shrunk. Transistors, sensors and cameras may soon combine to eliminate the need for someone in the driver’s seat or pilot’s seat — and move us about faster and more safely. But that could eliminate millions of jobs. Where will all the workers go? Will it be into other jobs or into unemployment? And if the cohort of the unemployed is to become a much larger one for want of employment opportunity, how will society cope with the assumed failure of an economy to employ most of those who may seek work? The advance of knowledge and its application to production — so improving the ratio of output to inputs of resources — of natural resources, labour and capital is nothing new. Economic progress, the result of scientific a...
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