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Summary
Summary
SHORTLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES & MCKINSEY 2020 BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR
One of Fortune Best Books of the Year
One of Inc. Best Business Books of the Year
One of The Times (UK) Best Business Books of the Year
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
From an Oxford economist, a visionary account of how technology will transform the world of work, and what we should do about it
From mechanical looms to the combustion engine to the first computers, new technologies have always provoked panic about workers being replaced by machines. For centuries, such fears have been misplaced, and many economists maintain that they remain so today. But as Daniel Susskind demonstrates, this time really is different. Breakthroughs in artificial intelligence mean that all kinds of jobs are increasingly at risk.
Drawing on almost a decade of research in the field, Susskind argues that machines no longer need to think like us in order to outperform us, as was once widely believed. As a result, more and more tasks that used to be far beyond the capability of computers - from diagnosing illnesses to drafting legal contracts, from writing news reports to composing music - are coming within their reach. The threat of technological unemployment is now real.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, Susskind emphasizes. Technological progress could bring about unprecedented prosperity, solving one of humanity's oldest problems: how to make sure that everyone has enough to live on. The challenges will be to distribute this prosperity fairly, to constrain the burgeoning power of Big Tech, and to provide meaning in a world where work is no longer the center of our lives. Perceptive, pragmatic, and ultimately hopeful, A World Without Work shows the way.
Author Notes
Daniel Susskind is the coauthor, with Richard Susskind, of The Future of the Professions , named as one of the best books of the year by the Financial Times , New Scientist , and the Times Literary Supplement . He is a fellow in economics at Balliol College, Oxford University. Previously, he worked in the British government - as a policy adviser in the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, as a policy analyst in the Policy Unit in 10 Downing Street, and as a senior policy adviser in the Cabinet Office.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
A thorough and sobering look at automation and the depreciation of human labor arrives from Oxford economics fellow Susskind (The Future of the Professions, coauthor). It turns on an important question: will there be enough work to employ people throughout the 21st century? Sorry but no, Susskind concludes; machines can't do everything, but they can do much more than they're doing currently, and will inevitably displace many more workers. He isn't in despair, however, as he has some possible remedies in mind. Before dispensing them, he briskly covers the rise of artificial intelligence, the social problems raised by economic inequality, and the efficacy of education for protecting economically insecure workers, which he finds more limited than optimists would have people think. Susskind then posits what he believes are more effective long-term responses, including increased government intervention into the free market, targeted tax incentives for employers, and strengthened regulation aimed at changing the behavior of big technology companies. This dense but lively investigation is not for the reader who wants an easy dinner-party answer, but the curious worrier or the skeptic who wants to understand the theory behind the machines will want to take a look. (Jan.)
Booklist Review
The theory that there will always be jobs that humans are more adept at than machines is based on AI fueled by human input. The AlphaZero system, however, can easily teach itself, within hours, a game such as chess and how to consistently beat humans or other machines. Such bottoms-up computation doesn't solve in human terms, making the nature of the human mind irrelevant to building computers that exceed human capability. Even job fields once thought safe from automation because they rely on tacit knowledge that is hard to explain are increasingly vulnerable to AI. For a world short on paid work, Oxford economist Susskind advocates a conditional basic income to avoid inequality and provide nonworkers with ways to contribute to society. He also predicts that the worrisome power of tech companies will be political, not economic, and will merit a Political Power Oversight Authority based on moral philosophy. The lives of nonworkers may lose purpose and meaning, so governments must rethink leisure and education. Susskind's book is so timely, to miss it might be downright irresponsible.--Dane Carr Copyright 2019 Booklist
Choice Review
A former policy advisor for the British government, Susskind (Univ. of Oxford, UK) lays out a case for continued advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) that would radically disrupt the labor market and result in significantly less work for humans. Susskind argues that the number of jobs that cannot be accomplished by AI is much smaller than economists have traditionally thought, and he provides a comprehensive history of AI and points to recent AI advances like AlphaGo. He argues that technology could evolve in unexpected ways, and that AI could become a powerful tool for solving problems in ways that are unfamiliar to humans and do not rely on anything resembling human cognition. Susskind also provides an excellent analysis of how technology has affected the labor market in the past, resulting in the creation of new types of jobs. However, he points out that the future result could be different due to evolving social and technological trends. In the last section of the book the author offers recommendations on how to deal with problems of mass unemployment, among these ideas universal basic income, taxation, and government oversight of technology. Though Susskind's argument and conclusions are a minority opinion, the possibilities he sets forth should not be overlooked. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals. --Sammy Joe Chapman, Purdue University Northwest
Table of Contents
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| Part I The Context | |
| 1 A History of Misplaced Anxiety | p. 13 |
| 2 The Age of Labor | p. 29 |
| 3 The Pragmatist Revolution | p. 45 |
| 4 Underestimating Machines | p. 60 |
| Part II The Threat | |
| 5 Task Encroachment | p. 77 |
| 6 Frictional Technological Unemployment | p. 98 |
| 7 Structural Technological Unemployment | p. 112 |
| 8 Technology and Inequality | p. 132 |
| Part III The Response | |
| 9 Education and Its Limits | p. 153 |
| 10 The Big State | p. 169 |
| 11 Big Tech | p. 197 |
| 12 Meaning and Purpose | p. 215 |
| Epilogue | p. 237 |
| Notes | p. 241 |
| Bibliography | p. 281 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 295 |
| Index | p. 297 |