THE FUTURE IS HERE

Rise of the Robots – Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future: an interview with Martin Ford

M&G’s Jim Leaviss interviews Martin Ford, author of Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future.

While technology is often heralded as a boon for productivity, in reality it hasn’t brought the improvements we might have expected in recent times. Nevertheless, as Ford explains, machines are increasingly capable of taking over a lot of the work currently done by humans.

Sceptics may argue that we have faced such challenges before. But the difference today is that machines are starting to be capable of thought. As such, it is not only manual jobs that will be under threat from robots operating in factories. Many types of routine computer-based tasks can also be automated using software.

These developments may help corporate profitability in the short-term, as firms become more efficient. But there are more worrying implications longer term: if too few people are either in the workforce or earning decent wages, who will generate demand for the products that robots are producing? After all, as Ford explains, robots don’t earn salaries.

If we see a leisure society, where there is no longer a need to work, as the most optimistic outcome, what needs to happen for it to be achieved? Ford believes that governments and populations must accept the need for unprecedented economic policies, and that an eventual move towards guaranteed incomes for all is in some sense inevitable.

Visit Bond Vigilantes: https://www.bondvigilantes.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=author