Tag: conservative

Forcing Marx Into the Automation Debate

Forcing Marx Into the Automation Debate

Automation, the reduction and/or removal of human participation in processes and procedures, has been a topic of economic discussion since the Industrial Revolution. The general dispute has been about whether or not automation will lead to mass unemployment. Acknowledging but passing over the primitivist perspective, in the 20th and 21st century, two camps have taken form, although the ideas behind each have existed for quite some time.

On the one side stand those who believe that technological advancement has never and therefore will never lead to the mass unemployment envisioned by techno-pessimists. Their ranks are often represented by professional economists […]

Yanfeng works to seize the potential of 4.0

Yanfeng works to seize the potential of 4.0

A collaborative robot works on a line at a Yanfeng Automotive Interiors plant. Much has been written about the fourth industrial revolution and the need of industry and manufacturing to participate in the digital transformation or be left behind. However, the reality would seem to be that many companies, at least those in the European plastics processing industry, are taking it slowly.

Not many processors are comfortable talking about the subject. While the manufacturers of plastics processing machinery, systems and auxiliaries of all kinds continue to develop and expand on the Industry 4.0 technology available to the industry, many companies […]

Imperial showcases AI prowess to Conservative and Labour Party conferences

Imperial showcases AI prowess to Conservative and Labour Party conferences

Professor Nick Jennings (right) and Zeno speaking on Professor Nick Jennings, Zeno the robot and Dr Declan O’Regan met political leaders in Liverpool and Birmingham this month.

Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise) Professor Nick Jennings spoke on a Royal Society panel at both party conferences, discussing artificial intelligence (AI), automation and the future of work. He was joined by Zeno, a robot that utilises AI to replicate the facial expressions of humans.

The panels, entitled ’How long until we have a robot for PM? Are the predictions about the future of work getting ahead of reality?’ featured speakers from academia, think tanks […]

To keep ahead of the machines, human workers need better training

To keep ahead of the machines, human workers need better training

1 of 6Visitors watch a robot performing at the China International Industry Fair in Shanghai, Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. China’s No. 2 leader appealed Wednesday for support for free trade and promised to improve conditions for foreign companies following tit-for-tat U.S. and Chinese tariff hikes in an escalating battle over Beijing’s technology Photo: Associated Press 2 of 6An Autonomous Container Trailer transports a cargo container to the baggage holding area during a test drive at Changi International Airport in Singapore, on Tuesday, July 17, 2018. The airport, voted the world’s best for the past six years by Skytrax, is […]

Switch To Electric Cars Could Put 75,000 Germans Out Of Work

Switch To Electric Cars Could Put 75,000 Germans Out Of Work

The respected Fraunhofer Institute of Industrial Engineering was asked recently by trade unions and auto manufacturers in Germany to determine what the impact the switch from conventional cars to electric cars will be on the labor force. There are currently 840,000 manufacturing jobs in Germany in the automotive sector. Of those, 210,000 involve the process of assembling internal combustion engines and transmissions. Assuming 25% of all cars will be electric by 2030, with 15% hybrids, and 60% still gasoline or diesel powered, Fraunhofer estimates 75,000 workers in the powertrain assembly field will lose their jobs. If the adoption of […]

Robots To Destroy 2.9m Working Class Jobs – And Tory Seats Will Be Hit Hardest

Robots To Destroy 2.9m Working Class Jobs - And Tory Seats Will Be Hit Hardest

Automation is on course to destroy almost five times as many working class jobs as the collapse of coal and steel in the 1980s, alarming new analysis predicts.

The forecast, published by a group of Labour MPs and activists called Red Shift, paints a bleak picture of the future jobs market – and finds that Tory constituencies face the biggest threats.

Studying OECD and House of Commons library figures, the research found that, while new jobs will be created, those on the lowest wages will be hit hardest by automation’s sweeping changes.The study says: Between 2.1 million and 2.9 million working […]

Top Ten Books This Week – June 04, 2018

Top fiction and non-fiction works of this week | By Yentha Non Fiction
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1. Janice Kaplan :How Luck Happens :Using the Science of Luck to Transform Work Love and Life :Janice Kaplan :Rs 499.00
New York Times bestselling author Janice Kaplan examines the phenomenon of luck–and discovers the exciting ways you can grab opportunities and make luck for yourself every day. After spending a year researching and experiencing gratitude for The Gratitude Diaries, Janice Kaplan is back to tackle another big, mysterious influence in all our lives: luck. And this time she’s joined on her journey by coauthor Dr. Barnaby […]

Guaranteed jobs may not solve the Democrats’ bigger problem with many voters

Policies to ensure everyone has a job sound appealing. But they may not help Democrats at the ballot box, and aren’t economically realistic.

The next big idea from the Democrats is a universal guarantee of a job to everyone who wants one.

Sens. Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Bernie Sanders, all potential candidates for president in 2020, have endorsed some version of the idea.Booker would start with a pilot program in 15 urban and rural areas, using federal funds to provide employment at $15 an hour.Gillibrand went considerably further. She told The Nation magazine, “Guaranteed jobs programs, creating floors for wages […]

Why we need to protect our income from robot automation

Why we need to protect our income from robot automation

The future is here. It’s time to take action. Robots conjure images of some distant future – a crisp, white-walled existence. Except that time is now.

Last month, one leading futurologist predicted that the global robot population, already more than 57 million, will outnumber humans by 2048, and that’s a conservative estimate.

Automation is already ingrained in everything from warehouse management to selling financial products. Workers are worried that they are going to find themselves replaced in the jobs market; employer services provider ADP recently surveyed 1,300 working adults and found that a third believe their job will be automated within […]

Ten million British jobs could be gone in 15 years. No one knows what happens next

Ten million British jobs could be gone in 15 years. No one knows what happens next

Plenty of people may not have heard of the retail firm Shop Direct . Its roots go back to the distant heyday of catalogue shopping, and two giants of that era, Littlewoods and Great Universal Stores. Now it is the parent company behind the online fashion brand Very and the reinvented Littlewoods.com. All this may sound innocuous enough. But in two areas of Greater Manchester, Shop Direct is newly notorious.

Until now, what the modern corporate vernacular calls “fulfilment” – in other words, packing up people’s orders and seeing to returns – has been dealt with at three Shop Direct […]