Author: automata

Enemy is poor education, not mechanisation

Enemy is poor education, not mechanisation

THE replacement of people in the workplace by machines has been feared throughout history. During the Industrial Revolution, workers known as Luddites attacked and destroyed the machines that threatened their jobs.

Yet while mechanisation did bring great hardship to the cottage weavers and spinners, fears of widespread unemployment proved unfounded. Mechanisation brought about rising prosperity and demand for new products and services. Lower production costs meant lower prices, which generated greater demand for goods previously affordable only to the wealthy.

As a result, the new machines set the scene for massive increases in jobs, wages and prosperity unequalled in history.Today, the […]

Work Automation and What it Means for Employees

Work Automation and What it Means for Employees

The workplace today is not the same as it was 10, 20, or even 30 years ago. As we entered the 21st century, the world was a very different place. Technological advances have allowed us to use automation to do many of the jobs that once required a personal touch. Modern technology has already caused many jobs to be phased out. One cannot help but wonder if the job they are doing right now will still be around in the upcoming years.

Robots Are Replacing Humans World-Wide

In some areas of the world, companies are using robots to do […]

Global warming and robotics: the two biggest threats to the ‘Asian Century’

Global warming and robotics: the two biggest threats to the ‘Asian Century’

A beer assembly line inside a brewery in Shenyang, Liaoning province. Such automation could keep factory jobs and provide more high-end jobs. But as China moves up the value chain – and no longer has an endless supply of cheap labour – India and the ASEAN member countries are expected to fill its role. Photo: Reuters We are living in the “Asian Century”, so called because by 2050, the region is projected to be as wealthy as Europe on a per capita basis, and hold a dominant share of global economic output.

But what if it turns out to be […]

Cost-cutting measures: Startups using layoffs to tackle tightening fund flow

Cost-cutting measures: Startups using layoffs to tackle tightening fund flow

At a time when investors are gradually tightening their purse strings on venture capital-backed e-commerce firms and tech startups — from $2.91 billion in September quarter of 2015 to $1.52 billion in December quarter to $1.40 billion in March quarter of 2016 and to $583 million in June quarter of the ongoing year — the investee companies are having to take a hard look at their growth oriented businesses. And it is the employees who are having to bear the brunt.

Since August 2015, eight of the poster-boys of the country’s e-commerce and technology ventures have reportedly trimmed close to […]

The Automation Issue and the Presidential Race

While Donald Trump softens (or curdles, depending on the perspective) on immigration, while folks question whether Hillary Clinton is a particularly articulate zombie, automation looms like a tidal wave. Neither candidate has touched on the issue very much, which is a shame because it will likely begin striking during the next administration.

Automation is the process of making stuff happen without humans doing it. Self-driving cars (and trucks) will be one example of automation, but so will robotic cooks at fast food joints. Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) were an early victory for the robots, way back in the 1960s. But […]

The Tech Revolution Rides On A Wave Of Lost Jobs

The Tech Revolution Rides On A Wave Of Lost Jobs

Uber lost over 1.2 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2016 – with most of this loss incurred as a result of paying its drivers. The company’s long term plan is reap a windfall by getting rid of the drivers and replacing them with self-driving vehicles.

Fast food companies, pressured by moves to increase the minimum wage to $15 dollars have been concerned about profits. Their long term plan is to get rid of the part of their businesses that complain about low wages, ask for health care benefits and are generally inefficient – the humans. "It’s cheaper to […]

Who Took My Job: 7 Potential Job Killers You Should Look Out For

Who Took My Job: 7 Potential Job Killers You Should Look Out For

As technology becomes more and more advanced, it displaces more and more people from their jobs.

People can’t afford to merely hang on to their jobs anymore. What’s required is preparation for newer jobs and constant upgrading of skills.

Jobless growth is not just a concept limited to the column inches of the newspapers anymore. It is now a reality. Growth itself is not coming easy. Countries across the globe are trying every trick in the book to boost growth, from zero interest rates to quantitative easing to helicopter money, but such antics have yielded a mouse.Not just growth but job […]

Automation could eliminate millions of truck driving jobs

Automation could eliminate millions of truck driving jobs

Millions of trucking jobs could be at risk due to automation What will happen to the countless truckers who could lose their livelihoods?

Nearly 50% of jobs in the United States are at risk of being eliminated by automation according to an Oxford University study. With recent advances in self-driving vehicles, trucking can be added to the list.

Already, The Daimler Freightliner Inspiration automated truck is approved to drive on Nevada freeways, and certainly will not be the last vehicle of its type. The autopilot feature steers the truck, but the Freightliner Inspiration still requires a human driver to take […]

Here’s the best argument that computers could replace doctors, teachers, and even nannies

Here’s the best argument that computers could replace doctors, teachers, and even nannies

Javier Zarracina/Vox

Artificial intelligence is improving rapidly, and a lot of people are worried that it will lead to massive job losses. In the past, technology mostly displaced workers doing routine tasks or manual labor. But as software becomes more sophisticated, there’s a growing prospect that truck drivers, teachers, and perhaps even doctors could see their jobs replaced by a robot or a computer program.

Ryan Avent is an economics correspondent for the Economist who has been thinking about the economics of automation for several years. He’s a technology optimist — he thinks software and robots really will massively boost economic […]

Job automation threatens peoples’ livelihoods. Can universal basic income save the day?

Job automation threatens peoples’ livelihoods. Can universal basic income save the day?

Planet Earth ( openDemocracy ) – In early 2013, a colleague and I attended the inaugural meeting of the UK Robot Ethics association. There, we suggested that developments in robotics and computing technology meant that we needed to re-evaluate some of our economic thinking. Machines were now increasingly capable of replacing human cognitive power as well as physical power, as had primarily been the case in the past. There is an orthodox idea in economics according to which increases in productivity driven by technology will not create long-term or ‘structural’ unemployment. Conventional thinking has it that as technology-driven productivity […]