Download or read book The Future of Work written by Darrell M. West and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Looking for ways to handle the transition to a digital economy Robots, artificial intelligence, and driverless cars are no longer things of the distant future. They are with us today and will become increasingly common in coming years, along with virtual reality and digital personal assistants. As these tools advance deeper into everyday use, they raise the question—how will they transform society, the economy, and politics? If companies need fewer workers due to automation and robotics, what happens to those who once held those jobs and don't have the skills for new jobs? And since many social benefits are delivered through jobs, how are people outside the workforce for a lengthy period of time going to earn a living and get health care and social benefits? Looking past today's headlines, political scientist and cultural observer Darrell M. West argues that society needs to rethink the concept of jobs, reconfigure the social contract, move toward a system of lifetime learning, and develop a new kind of politics that can deal with economic dislocations. With the U.S. governance system in shambles because of political polarization and hyper-partisanship, dealing creatively with the transition to a fully digital economy will vex political leaders and complicate the adoption of remedies that could ease the transition pain. It is imperative that we make major adjustments in how we think about work and the social contract in order to prevent society from spiraling out of control. This book presents a number of proposals to help people deal with the transition from an industrial to a digital economy. We must broaden the concept of employment to include volunteering and parenting and pay greater attention to the opportunities for leisure time. New forms of identity will be possible when the "job" no longer defines people's sense of personal meaning, and they engage in a broader range of activities. Workers will need help throughout their lifetimes to acquire new skills and develop new job capabilities. Political reforms will be necessary to reduce polarization and restore civility so there can be open and healthy debate about where responsibility lies for economic well-being. This book is an important contribution to a discussion about tomorrow—one that needs to take place today.
Download or read book Tales from a Robotic World written by Dario Floreano and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2022-09-27 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stories from the future of intelligent machines—from rescue drones to robot spouses—and accounts of cutting-edge research that could make it all possible. Tech prognosticators promised us robots—autonomous humanoids that could carry out any number of tasks. Instead, we have robot vacuum cleaners. But, as Dario Floreano and Nicola Nosengo report, advances in robotics could bring those rosy predictions closer to reality. A new generation of robots, directly inspired by the intelligence and bodies of living organisms, will be able not only to process data but to interact physically with humans and the environment. In this book, Floreano, a roboticist, and Nosengo, a science writer, bring us tales from the future of intelligent machines—from rescue drones to robot spouses—along with accounts of the cutting-edge research that could make it all possible. These stories from the not-so-distant future show us robots that can be used for mitigating effects of climate change, providing healthcare, working with humans on the factory floor, and more. Floreano and Nosengo tell us how an application of swarm robotics could protect Venice from flooding, how drones could reduce traffic on the congested streets of mega-cities like Hong Kong, and how a “long-term relationship model” robot could supply sex, love, and companionship. After each fictional scenario, they explain the technologies that underlie it, describing advances in such areas as soft robotics, swarm robotics, aerial and mobile robotics, humanoid robots, wearable robots, and even biohybrid robots based on living cells. Robotics technology is no silver bullet for all the world’s problems—but it can help us tackle some of the most pressing challenges we face.
Download or read book Rise of the Robots written by Martin Ford and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2015-05-05 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times-bestselling guide to how automation is changing the economy, undermining work, and reshaping our lives Winner of Best Business Book of the Year awards from the Financial Times and from Forbes "Lucid, comprehensive, and unafraid . . . ;an indispensable contribution to a long-running argument." -- Los Angeles Times What are the jobs of the future? How many will there be? And who will have them? As technology continues to accelerate and machines begin taking care of themselves, fewer people will be necessary. Artificial intelligence is already well on its way to making "good jobs" obsolete: many paralegals, journalists, office workers, and even computer programmers are poised to be replaced by robots and smart software. As progress continues, blue and white collar jobs alike will evaporate, squeezing working -- and middle-class families ever further. At the same time, households are under assault from exploding costs, especially from the two major industries-education and health care-that, so far, have not been transformed by information technology. The result could well be massive unemployment and inequality as well as the implosion of the consumer economy itself. The past solutions to technological disruption, especially more training and education, aren't going to work. We must decide, now, whether the future will see broad-based prosperity or catastrophic levels of inequality and economic insecurity. Rise of the Robots is essential reading to understand what accelerating technology means for our economic prospects-not to mention those of our children-as well as for society as a whole.
Download or read book Future Robots written by Domenico Parisi and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2014-06-15 with total page 503 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is for both robot builders and scientists who study human behaviour and human societies. Scientists do not only collect empirical data but they also formulate theories to explain the data. Theories of human behaviour and human societies are traditionally expressed in words but, today, with the advent of the computer they can also be expressed by constructing computer-based artefacts. If the artefacts do what human beings do, the theory/blueprint that has been used to construct the artefacts explains human behaviour and human societies. Since human beings are primarily bodies, the artefacts must be robots, and human robots must progressively reproduce all we know about human beings and their societies. And, although they are purely scientific tools, they can have one very important practical application: helping human beings to better understand the many difficult problems they face today and will face in the future - and, perhaps, to find solutions for these problems.
Download or read book What To Expect When You re Expecting Robots written by Laura Major and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The next generation of robots will be truly social, but can we make sure that they play well in the sandbox? Most robots are just tools. They do limited sets of tasks subject to constant human control. But a new type of robot is coming. These machines will operate on their own in busy, unpredictable public spaces. They'll ferry deliveries, manage emergency rooms, even grocery shop. Such systems could be truly collaborative, accomplishing tasks we don't do well without our having to stop and direct them. This makes them social entities, so, as robot designers Laura Major and Julie Shah argue, whether they make our lives better or worse is a matter of whether they know how to behave. What to Expect When You're Expecting Robots offers a vision for how robots can survive in the real world and how they will change our relationship to technology. From teaching them manners, to robot-proofing public spaces, to planning for their mistakes, this book answers every question you didn't know you needed to ask about the robots on the way.
Download or read book Robot Futures written by Illah Reza Nourbakhsh and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "With robots, we are inventing a new species that is part material and part digital. The ambition of modern robotics goes beyond copying humans, beyond the effort to make walking, talking androids that are indistinguishable from people. Future robots will have superhuman abilities in both the physical and digital realms. They will be embedded in our physical spaces, with the ability to go where we cannot, and will have minds of their own, thanks to artificial intelligence. They will be fully connected to the digital world, far better at carrying out online tasks than we are. In Robot Futures, the roboticist Illah Reza Nourbakhsh considers how we will share our world with these creatures, and how our society could change as it incorporates a race of stronger, smarter beings. Nourbakhsh imagines a future that includes adbots offering interactive custom messaging; robotic flying toys that operate by means of "gaze tracking"; robot-enabled multimodal, multicontinental telepresence; and even a way that nanorobots could allow us to assume different physical forms. Nourbakhsh follows each glimpse into the robotic future with an examination of the underlying technology and an exploration of the social consequences of the scenario. Each chapter describes a form of technological empowerment -- in some cases, empowerment run amok, with corporations and institutions amassing even more power and influence and individuals becoming unconstrained by social accountability. (Imagine the hotheaded discourse of the Internet taking physical form.) Nourbakhsh also offers a counter-vision: a robotics designed to create civic and community empowerment. His book helps us understand why that is the robot future we should try to bring about."--Jacket.
Download or read book The Robots Are Coming written by Andres Oppenheimer and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2019-04-30 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Staying true to his trademark journalistic approach, Andrés Oppenheimer takes his readers on yet another journey, this time across the globe, in a thought-provoking search to understand what the future holds for today's jobs in the foreseeable age of automation. The Robots Are Coming! centers around the issue of jobs and their future in the context of rapid automation and the growth of online products and services. As two of Oppenheimer's interviewees -- both experts in technology and economics from Oxford University -- indicate, forty-seven percent of existing jobs are at risk of becoming automated or rendered obsolete by other technological changes in the next twenty years. Oppenheimer examines current changes in several fields, including the food business, legal work, banking, and medicine, speaking with experts in the field, and citing articles and literature on automation in various areas of the workforce. He contrasts the perspectives of "techno-optimists" with those of "techno-negativists" and generally attempts to find a middle ground between an alarmist vision of the future, and one that is too uncritical. A self-described "cautious optimist", Oppenheimer believes that technology will not create massive unemployment, but rather will drastically change what work looks like.
Download or read book Talking to Robots written by David Ewing Duncan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-07-16 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Award-winning journalist David Ewing Duncan considers 24 visions of possible human-robot futures—Incredible scenarios from Teddy Bots to Warrior Bots, and Politician Bots to Sex Bots—Grounded in real technologies and possibilities and inspired by our imagination. What robot and AI systems are being built and imagined right now? What do they say about us, their creators? Will they usher in a fantastic new future, or destroy us? What do some of our greatest thinkers, from physicist Brian Greene and futurist Kevin Kelly to inventor Dean Kamen, geneticist George Church, and filmmaker Tiffany Shlain, anticipate about our human-robot future? For even as robots and A.I. intrigue us and make us anxious about the future, our fascination with robots has always been about more than the potential of the technology–it’s also about what robots tell us about being human.
Download or read book Artificial Intelligence for Future Generation Robotics written by Rabindra Nath Shaw and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2021-06-19 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Artificial Intelligence for Future Generation Robotics offers a vision for potential future robotics applications for AI technologies. Each chapter includes theory and mathematics to stimulate novel research directions based on the state-of-the-art in AI and smart robotics. Organized by application into ten chapters, this book offers a practical tool for researchers and engineers looking for new avenues and use-cases that combine AI with smart robotics. As we witness exponential growth in automation and the rapid advancement of underpinning technologies, such as ubiquitous computing, sensing, intelligent data processing, mobile computing and context aware applications, this book is an ideal resource for future innovation. Brings AI and smart robotics into imaginative, technically-informed dialogue Integrates fundamentals with real-world applications Presents potential applications for AI in smart robotics by use-case Gives detailed theory and mathematical calculations for each application Stimulates new thinking and research in applying AI to robotics
Download or read book The Rise of the Robots written by Martin Ford and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-09-03 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Intelligent algorithms are already well on their way to making white collar jobs obsolete: travel agents, data-analysts, and paralegals are currently in the firing line. In the near future, doctors, taxi-drivers and ironically even computer programmers are poised to be replaced by ‘robots’. Without a radical reassessment of our economic and political structures, we risk the very implosion of the capitalist economy itself. In The Rise of the Robots, technology expert Martin Ford systematically outlines the achievements of artificial intelligence and uses a wealth of economic data to illustrate the terrifying societal implications. From health and education to finance and technology, his warning is stark – all jobs that are on some level routine are likely to eventually be automated, resulting in the death of traditional careers and a hollowed-out middle class. The robots are coming and we have to decide – now – whether the future will bring prosperity or catastrophe.
Download or read book Robots written by Kenneth William Gatland and published by E.D.C. Publishing. This book was released on 1979 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes possible uses for robots of the future.
Download or read book The New Breed written by Kate Darling and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2021-04-20 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For readers of The Second Machine Age or The Soul of an Octopus, a bold, exciting exploration of how building diverse kinds of relationships with robots—inspired by how we interact with animals—could be the key to making our future with robot technology work There has been a lot of ink devoted to discussions of how robots will replace us and take our jobs. But MIT Media Lab researcher and technology policy expert Kate Darling argues just the opposite, suggesting that treating robots with a bit of humanity, more like the way we treat animals, will actually serve us better. From a social, legal, and ethical perspective, she shows that our current ways of thinking don’t leave room for the robot technology that is soon to become part of our everyday routines. Robots are likely to supplement—rather than replace—our own skills and relationships. So if we consider our history of incorporating animals into our work, transportation, military, and even families, we actually have a solid basis for how to contend with this future. A deeply original analysis of our technological future and the ethical dilemmas that await us, The New Breed explains how the treatment of machines can reveal a new understanding of our own history, our own systems, and how we relate—not just to nonhumans, but also to one another.
Download or read book AI Robots and the Future of the Human Race written by Lisa Idzikowski and published by . This book was released on 2019-12-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The term "artificial intelligence" was introduced in 1956. Today's AI is accomplishing the original goal of mirroring human thought processes; it's designed to independently adapt to and learn from new data. AI involves programming machines and robots to automatically complete complicated tasks. The opportunities to simplify and enhance daily life that these machines offer could make them instrumental in advancing the development of humankind. However, concerns about what can be accomplished through robotics, the extent to which humans can control sophisticated AI, and the impact robots and AI will have on labor, warfare, and health must also be considered. This volume presents thoughtful, well-researched essays that help readers analyze this topic and develop their own intelligent viewpoints.
Download or read book Mind Children written by Hans Moravec and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1988 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A dizzying display of intellect and wild imaginings by Moravec, a world-class roboticist who has himself developed clever beasts . . . Undeniably, Moravec comes across as a highly knowledgeable and creative talent--which is just what the field needs".--Kirkus Reviews.
Download or read book The Fourth Age written by Byron Reese and published by Atria Books. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As we approach a great turning point in history when technology is poised to redefine what it means to be human, The Fourth Age offers fascinating insight into AI, robotics, and their extraordinary implications for our species. “If you only read just one book about the AI revolution, make it this one” (John Mackey, cofounder and CEO, Whole Foods Market). In The Fourth Age, Byron Reese makes the case that technology has reshaped humanity just three times in history: 100,000 years ago, we harnessed fire, which led to language; 10,000 years ago, we developed agriculture, which led to cities and warfare; 5,000 years ago, we invented the wheel and writing, which lead to the nation state. We are now on the doorstep of a fourth change brought about by two technologies: AI and robotics. “Timely, highly informative, and certainly optimistic” (Booklist), The Fourth Age provides an essential background on how we got to this point, and how—rather than what—we should think about the topics we’ll soon all be facing: machine consciousness, automation, changes in employment, creative computers, radical life extension, artificial life, AI ethics, the future of warfare, superintelligence, and the implications of extreme prosperity. By asking questions like “Are you a machine?” and “Could a computer feel anything?”, Reese leads you through a discussion along the cutting edge in robotics and AI, and provides a framework by which we can all understand, discuss, and act on the issues of the Fourth Age and how they’ll transform humanity.
Download or read book The Future of Violence Robots and Germs Hackers and Drones written by Benjamin Wittes and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2016-03-15 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The terrifying new role of technology in a world at war
Download or read book The Work of the Future written by David H. Autor and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-10-03 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why the United States lags behind other industrialized countries in sharing the benefits of innovation with workers and how we can remedy the problem. The United States has too many low-quality, low-wage jobs. Every country has its share, but those in the United States are especially poorly paid and often without benefits. Meanwhile, overall productivity increases steadily and new technology has transformed large parts of the economy, enhancing the skills and paychecks of higher paid knowledge workers. What’s wrong with this picture? Why have so many workers benefited so little from decades of growth? The Work of the Future shows that technology is neither the problem nor the solution. We can build better jobs if we create institutions that leverage technological innovation and also support workers though long cycles of technological transformation. Building on findings from the multiyear MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, the book argues that we must foster institutional innovations that complement technological change. Skills programs that emphasize work-based and hybrid learning (in person and online), for example, empower workers to become and remain productive in a continuously evolving workplace. Industries fueled by new technology that augments workers can supply good jobs, and federal investment in R&D can help make these industries worker-friendly. We must act to ensure that the labor market of the future offers benefits, opportunity, and a measure of economic security to all.
