Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future - Rise of the Robots

This book has everyone talking, and rightly so. This is one of the big topics at Davos January 2016. Whether you are a student trying to choose a career or someone who already has a career, this is a must read.

I believe that Martin did very good job summarizing all important drivers of automation and its effect on society. I personally don't support his point of view on basic income guarantee because we don't yet close to this option- free markets are not fully exploit and we just keep expanding in outer space for example.

A shocking and depressing book about the rise of artifiical intelligence and how it is replacing virtually every job that humans are currently doing in every economic sector, from the bricklayers to the professors. So inevitable is this takeover, says the author, that the only solution is to provide everybody with a basic income so they can go on living even though they have little hope of working. The book makes its point over and over and over again. The point is very strong. the "over and over again" is the book's great weakness.

Ford offers a unique view into the changing landscapes of technology and the economy. Giving the reader a overview of the cutting edge of robotic and computer technology Ford extrapolates the consequences such technology is likely to have on our world in the not too distant future.

Like: good analogies made concepts and linkages easy to understand; sufficiently detailed research without becoming dry.

Not-so-good: overly hasty conclusion, assumptions behind policy recommendations can be better explained.

Overall an engaging read about a dystopian future and how the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

A thoughtful discussion of where I agree our economy is headed. How do we view this set of coming changes? Automation replacing many or most traditional jobs. It's happening now. We had best understand it and prepare

Martin Ford makes a cohesive argument for automation contributing substantially to a downward economic spiral for the non-elite actors in the US (and world) economy. In concert with political decisions made over the last 40 years accelerating automation threatens us with (mounting and accelerating) deflationary pressure. Ford also discusses potential solutions, the most promising of which is a basic or guaranteed income. His arguments are cogent and well thought out, he provides ample evidence for his proposals and analysis.

Very good introduction to digitalization and the putative age of robotics. The only major weakness of the book is that it does not study the effect of possible near-term peak energy (and also peak some metals).

it is insightful on how robots are replacing american workers, but at a much slower pace than is represented by moving our fatories to medixo and china or india and laying off the emerican workers. I don't think american workers are as worried about being replaced by robots as this book is leading people to believe

Excellent read for anyone interested in where our economy and social structure is headed. I fear our broken politics will be unable to deal with these rapid changes, creating more gaps between the have and have nots, further straining our politics and creating more stress on our safety nets and society.

Martin Ford provides a fantastic and insightful overview of a subject that should not be ignored. While there is much here that should and will be the subject of much debate, it is an unquestionably important book. Read it.

The most thought provoking book I have read in years. I don't want to come off as a STEM or economics nave but the books offers a clear, understanding, frightening, and hopeful future vision of our global capitalist economy. A true must read.

At time this book is difficult to read. It portends dire events to come as ever more automation reduces the need of humans in the workforce. I would like to believe we will sufficiently advance the human species as well to, if not avoid, at least adapt to this Malthusian prophecy.

Expands and updates his basic theory that was explained in his first very interesting and game changer book "The Lights in the tunnel". I used that first book in my class discussions with MBA candidates and found it extremely provocative to entice them to think out of the box, resulting in very heated but enlightening very constructive debates. I am not sure if I will obtain the same result with Rise of the Robots. Although this is very well researched book and covers a lot of new ground, I find it lacks the punch of his first when it comes to challenging the linear thinking of the economic profession, particularly on policy proposal. The analogy of the river flow and destruction of jobs Ford used to illustrate his alternative taxation proposal on "The Lights in the tunnel" has been much improved in this work by the analogy of the market as a renewable resource to the depletion of a school of fish that must be renewed exogenously (i.e., replacing the purchasing power gone with the destruction of jobs). Connecting the tragedy of the commons to his argument is a plus in this book. In the overall, Rise of the Robots comes out at a very good time when the "The Second Machine Age" (Brynjolffson and McAfee) and the coordinated articles on Robotics appearing in the July/August 2015 issue of Foreign Affairs are finally concentrating the attention of the general public on the impact that Artificial Intelligence is having in society's mainstream economic activities.