David Autor : Will automation take away all our jobs?

TED 2016

David Autor : Will automation take away all our jobs? (transcript)

Summary

Will automation take away all our jobs?

First, I couldn’t have the answer, because tractor and ATMs took away vast numbers of our jobs before and even now. However, it's not all of our jobs. They can do their tasks faster and better than us, but they don't make our jobs superfluous.

Just technology magnifies our leverage, and increases the importance of our expertise, our judgment, and our creativity. We haven't prepared, and we cannot qualify for the good jobs that are being created.

There are the principles that are the O-ring principle and the never-get-enough principle there.

It means, our tasks are turned to many O-ring jobs that are important for us to do something, but machines cannot do that. Material abundance has never eliminated perceived scarcity, and there’s an amazing amount prosperity in our world. That's why you can’t say that automation takes away all our jobs. It is not decided by the machines and the market. It's decided by us and our institutions. We have to prepare for our new jobs and the answer is “No”.

Words in this story

frivolous /adj/  silly, not having any serious purpose or value

calamitous /adj/ involving calamity; catastrophic; disastrous.

superfluous /adj/  redundant, unnecessary, especially through being more than enough.

equivalent /adj/  equal, identical, same

senseless /adj/ unreasonable, irrational, absurd