Tag: academic

Economic Visionary James Boggs Turns 100

Economic Visionary James Boggs Turns 100

James and Grace Lee Boggs Celebrating the life of a hero form working-class Detroit.

J ames Boggs was an African American autoworker, working on the factory line at Detroit’s Chrysler-Jefferson plant from 1940 to 1968—28 years.

That might conjure up particular images of a post-war, rust belt factory worker. Probably a union man.And Boggs was a labor activist, but he wasn’t what you might call an ‘average’ worker.Rather, he was a revolutionary, a writer, and a theorist. He was a contemporary philosopher; a thinking human who cared about his community.And he believed—rather, he knew —you are all those things, […]

Don’t fall into the AI doomsday trap

Don’t fall into the AI doomsday trap

If you’re one of the many who see a dark future where the honest working man is replaced by mindless structures of automated metal, where technology has become so advanced that it is no longer under our control, and where the human race is overpowered by evil robots programmed to take over the world, 1) I envy your imagination, and 2) you should probably stop listening to people like Elon Musk. Musk, arguably one of the most highly revered tech-minds of our time, told the National Governors Association in July 2017, ¨There certainly will be job disruption. Because what’s […]

re:MARS Attendee Notes Future Job Loss from Automation and A.I.

re:MARS Attendee Notes Future Job Loss from Automation and A.I.

There has been a lot of tech news coming out of Amazon’s inaugural re:MARS event in Las Vegas last week, some already noted here ( Jeff Bezos Predicts Advanced Robot Hands in a Decade ).

Below, billionaire Amazon owner Jeff Bezos chats up technology at his re:MARS conference. Many reports from attendees centered around all the sparkly new automation and A.I. advances, so it was a relief to find one that addressed the coming threat to human employment from smart machines. Author Kyle Wiggers (linked below) even included a list of dire predictions near the end of his article, […]

Artificial intelligence, the future of work, and inequality

Artificial intelligence, the future of work, and inequality

Figure 1: Gross Domestic Product in five countries, 1000-2015. Source: The CORE-Econ Project. Credit: Colorado State University One of the most spectacular facts of the last two centuries of economic history is the exponential growth in GDP per capita in most of the world. Figure 1 shows the rise (and the difference) in living standards for five countries since 1000 AD.

This economic progress, unprecedented in human history, would be impossible without major breakthroughs in technology. The economic historian Joel Mokyr has argued that the Enlightenment in Britain brought new ways to transfer scientific discoveries into practical tools for engineers […]

Facing The Unknown Future Of Work As AI Changes The Rules Of Business

Facing The Unknown Future Of Work As AI Changes The Rules Of Business

Even as we read about the first layoffs blamed at least in part on automation, there is still cause for optimism. While easily automated jobs may fall by the wayside, it’s important to remember that new jobs managing and leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) technology are being created.

Titles like edge computing release manager, edge stream researcher and AI analytics executive did not exist until very recently. Earlier this year, I hired a vice president of AI and robotic process automation. How many of us thought even ten years ago that a role like this would be so central for business […]

‘The UK is a long way behind in terms of productivity’: Mike Wilson, BARA

Chairman of the British Automation and Robot Association (BARA) Mike Wilson discusses the ‘underperforming’ state of the UK’s manufacturing robot industry. He says without an increased commitment to automation, it will find itself with bigger problems on its plate than Brexit.

“The UK is a long way behind in terms of productivity,” says Mike Wilson of the British Automation and Robot Association (BARA). “The increased use of robotics is an important element of addressing that shortfall.” Wilson is the chairman of BARA, an organisation that represents “the supply chain for robot and automation products into the UK”. Its membership consists […]

Listen, RBA, to Money Morning Readers

Listen, RBA, to Money Morning Readers

There you have it…

Last week, we found out why ScoMo defeated the Bill Australia couldn’t afford.

Voters went with the Liberals for economic reasons.In a JWS Research survey of 1,000 voters, 39% of them said economic issues were a key factor for their vote.One Morrison voter later said, ‘ Bill Shorten is no prime minister. ’‘ He would have sent us broke. He had no clue what climate change would cost or how long to charge an electric car. He looked incompetent. ’While I agree with the passionate voter, I’m not so sure Morrison had — or has — much […]

The Future Of Work

The Future Of Work

Envision a world where everyone is employed, everyone is happy with their work, and we coexist with artificial intelligence (AI) in our everyday life. What does that image look like? What jobs do you picture humans performing?

Such a utopian equilibrium may not be easy to visualize, but we are looking at a transition that is taking shape as I write.

Our ever-changing world with its unprecedented technological advances is creating a whirlwind of possibilities and challenges. One of the most deeply troubling questions is whether automation and AI might eventually replace every human activity imaginable. Glooming headlines shape the perception […]

Chip off the new block: Blockchain and the building sector

Chip off the new block: Blockchain and the building sector

What does blockchain mean for the construction sector? Will it change the ways in which we manage building assets? How will distribution and supply be altered by new digital technologies? Academics from the University of Auckland, Dermott McMeel and Alex Sims, have begun researching just such questions. Federico Monsalve sat down with them to glean an early indication of their process and thinking.

Federico Monsalve (FM): How did your interest in the applications of blockchain to the construction industry begin?

Dermott McMeel (DM): It is partly because, before being a researcher, I was an architect. My father was […]

Robots and us

Robots and us

Photo: Getty Images The robots are not at the gates and the future of work could be great, Kinley Salmon says. So why are others not so chipper? And what does Trump, Kaitangata and the demise of the middle class have to do with how we will live when automation takes over? Bruce Munro investigates.

In late-June, 1970, as Joyce Kempton stood in the fading light at the Balclutha bus stop waiting for her fiance, Sid Beck, to pick her up in his Mark II Zephyr, she was acutely aware of the air of concern pervading her hometown, Kaitangata.

Joyce […]