Bruce Sterling, discussing artificial intelligence and automation in his closing remarks at South by Southwest last month, speculated that the social impact of that technological shift would be “the proletariat, turning into the precariat, turning into the unnecessariat.” On the brink of the transition, the specter of large-scale unemployment does loom large, as it has with so many previous labor-saving innovations, but each time around we’re less optimistic and more certain the labor “saved” will take the form of greater instability and inequality, not leisure.
#8: Automation, Leisure & the Laffer Curve
#8: Automation, Leisure & the Laffer Curve
#8: Automation, Leisure & the Laffer Curve
Bruce Sterling, discussing artificial intelligence and automation in his closing remarks at South by Southwest last month, speculated that the social impact of that technological shift would be “the proletariat, turning into the precariat, turning into the unnecessariat.” On the brink of the transition, the specter of large-scale unemployment does loom large, as it has with so many previous labor-saving innovations, but each time around we’re less optimistic and more certain the labor “saved” will take the form of greater instability and inequality, not leisure.