The Amazon Picking Challenge
Date November 05, 2014
Words 131
Amazon has created The Amazon Picking Challenge to spur improvements in picking robot performance. These are the robots that fill boxes in Amazon’s…
America DOES Still Make Stuff
Date November 05, 2014
Words 109
It’s a common complaint that “America doesn’t make anything anymore.” Well, yes we do, it just doesn’t get as much press as the latest tech startup.…
Automate This
Date November 05, 2014
Words 131
I read this Automate This over the summer: The bot takeover began with high frequency trading on Wall Street, and from there it spread to all manners…
The Innovation Cycle
Date November 05, 2014
Words 250
All innovation is not created equal. This article identifies three different types, in chronological order: Empowering innovations “transform…
More Stuff, Less People Required
Date November 05, 2014
Words 111
From a 2011 study entitled The Case of the Disappearing Large Employer Manufacturing Plants : […] the dramatic disappearance of large employers is…
Not Working
Date November 05, 2014
Words 48
Found in an article entitled The Art of Not Working at Work : Everywhere we look, technology is replacing human labor. In OECD countries,…
The Onion on Serving the Machines
Date November 05, 2014
Words 70
The Onion claims that Man’s Whole Job Undoing Handiwork Of Self-Checkout Machine : Admitting that he basically just stands there until one of the…
OTR Trucking in a Self-Driving World
Date November 05, 2014
Words 308
If I was an over-the-road trucker, I’d be watching Google’s self-driving car research with a careful eye, because the human behind the wheel of a…
The Slow Elimination of Hotel Housekeeping
Date November 05, 2014
Words 452
Every year, my Dad and I go to Las Vegas for a rugby tournament. The last time we were there, we managed to get a very high-end hotel at off-season…
The Great Decoupling
Date November 06, 2014
Words 223
Author and and professor Erik Brynjolfsson is convinced that technology is increasing productivity at the cost of jobs, and he has a chart that he…
47% at Risk
Date November 07, 2014
Words 113
You see the “47%” figure floating around a lot, refering to how many jobs the economy could lose to technology. Here’s where it comes from – an…
What Does the Future Look Like?
Date November 07, 2014
Words 257
Interesting discussion over on Reddit: Imagine a robot that is a complete replacement for the average American worker. What economic system develops…
Manna
Date November 09, 2014
Words 307
Manna: Two Visions of Humanity’s Future is a novel set sometime in the future with a protagonist living in Cary, North Carolina and working at a…
Ken Jennings on The Inevitable Future
Date November 10, 2014
Words 12
Ken Jennings “Final Jeopardy” answer when playing against IBM’s Watson in 2011.
Computers and Ediscovery
Date November 11, 2014
Words 204
In 2011, the New York Times was telling us about how so-called “ electronic discovery ” would be putting lawyers out of business by enabling the…
The Luddites
Date November 11, 2014
Words 264
Let’s just take a second to reflect on how long the battle against worker automation has been fought. Here’s where the pejorative term “ Luddite ”…
Open-Source Library Self-Checkout
Date November 11, 2014
Words 128
If you have a public library, you can have automation even if you don’t have a budget, thanks to this open-source, web-based self-checkout system .…
Pew Report on the Effect of Technology on Jobs
Date November 11, 2014
Words 576
Pew Research did a “canvassing” of experts and have released the results of one of their questions: AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs They asked…
… the unfashionable argument that expertise cannot be reduced to data
Date November 11, 2014
Words 454
Here’s an article about “The Knowledge,” which is the body of knowledge that London cab drivers need to know: The Knowledge, London’s Legendary…
Self-Service Retail
Date November 11, 2014
Words 104
This article is over three years old: Retail jobs are disappearing as shoppers adjust to self-service . You can bet the trend has just accelerated in…
The Value of Man (…according to NASA in 1965)
Date November 11, 2014
Words 27
Found this quote via Race Against the Machine : Man is the lowest-cost, 150-pound, nonlinear, all-purpose computer system which can be mass-produced…
Elon Musk on the Dangers of AI
Date November 20, 2014
Words 80
A recurring theme of some of Elon Musk’s comments have been that the rise of artificial intelligence might end very badly for humans. From a CNBC…
The Ethics of the Robots
Date November 21, 2014
Words 100
The next frontier of self-driving cars is teaching them ethics. It turns out that some split-second decisions are as much value judgments as clear…
Universal Basic Income
Date November 21, 2014
Words 616
Marshall Brain of the How Stuff Works franchise, and the Manna novella, presents his case for a universal basic income . He starts off by painting a…
Would We Even Need to Own Self-Driving Cars?
Date November 25, 2014
Words 330
The impact of self-driving cars will ripple through several different industries. It may be a huge step in the idea of not owning a car at all. The…
Information, Functional, and Access Asymmetry
Date December 01, 2014
Words 462
I’m wondering how much technological unemployment will result from the simple, natural elimination of information asymmetry and the subsequent…
Amazon’s Picker Robots in Action
Date December 02, 2014
Words 12
This video is making the rounds today. Amazon’s robot army in action.
The Effect of Self-Driving Cars on Heart Health
Date December 05, 2014
Words 101
I can’t find the original source mentioned in this column , but the CEO of McKinsey, Dominic Barton, apparently said this last week: If you are a…
Smart Meters Eliminate Jobs, But Don’t Bring Much Else?
Date December 06, 2014
Words 150
Smart electrical meters were supposed to eliminate thousands of inefficient meter reading positions, and usher in a wave of intelligent energy…
The Human We Need might not be a doctor…
Date December 24, 2014
Words 55
The Week has a short piece, provocatively titled “ How computers will replace your doctor .” I loved this quote about “the human we need.” But the…
Wither the Waiter?
Date December 26, 2014
Words 109
Waiters might be next on the chopping block, given that a company making pay-at-the-table tablets is raising significant capital . E la Carte Inc., a…
Documentary on Death and Work
Date December 29, 2014
Words 190
This documentary just got funded in Kickstarter. It connects the death of work to the death of…well, actual death , and discusses how the two relate…
Google Unveils Concrete Plans for their Self-Driving Car
Date December 29, 2014
Words 59
Google is apparently ready to sell this thing : Google’s prototype self-driving car could be rolling through the streets of Northern California in…
Bill Gates on software substitution
Date January 02, 2015
Words 65
Bill Gates, speaking last week at The American Enterprise Institute, said this: Software substitution, whether it’s for drivers or waiters or nurses…
Camel Racing Robots Protect Human Rights
Date January 02, 2015
Words 165
Camel racing in the Middle East is big business, and the sport has worked for over a decade to replace all the jockeys with robots , However, in a…
The Effect of a Declining Minimum Billable Unit on Wages
Date January 05, 2015
Words 544
Here’s an article from the Economist about the rise of technology that match people needing work with people who need the work done, in close to…
The Business Insider on Technological Unemployment
Date January 24, 2015
Words 293
Business Insider recently wrote a broad article on technological unemployment entitled “ The Future of Jobs .” Some highlights – John Maynard Keynes…
Robotic Guilt
Date January 24, 2015
Words 85
The New York Times reports further on the inability for robots to have morals or make moral-based judgments. One innovator is trying…
Bill Gates on Reddit
Date January 28, 2015
Words 212
Bill Gates did another Reddit AMA , There were a couple questions about technological unemployment: Someone: How much of an existential threat do you…
Humans Need Not Apply
Date January 28, 2015
Words 157
This video is stone-cold terrifying. It lays out the fundamental case for technological unemployment, and explains that technology evolves faster…
Smart Meter Initiatives Promise Retained Jobs
Date January 28, 2015
Words 122
I stumbled across two articles today, both making the same claim about smart meters: Out of Columbus, Ohio: AEP expects decision soon on smart meters…
Longshoremen, Wages, and Resisting Technology
Date March 02, 2015
Words 183
Here’s an interesting article about how longshoremen at West Coast ports have prevented technological improvements from threatening their jobs – it’s…
More on Driverless Cars
Date March 02, 2015
Words 280
Zack Kanter writes about autonomous cars : Autonomous cars will be commonplace by 2025 and have a near monopoly by 2030, and the sweeping change they…
The Uber-ization of Work
Date March 04, 2015
Words 135
The New York Times talks about something that we discussed in the past. Uberization of work may soon be coming to your chosen profession. Just as…
The Effect of Usability on Employment Rates
Date March 04, 2015
Words 339
I’m wondering about much usability and HCI will affect automation and job losses. I’ve been thinking that a lot of transactions cannot be automated…
Wither the Parking Attendant?
Date March 08, 2015
Words 113
There’s very little detail in this article about parking at a Dallas stadium, but the last line is pretty clear: Last week American Airlines Center,…
Does the Internet kill jobs?
Date April 06, 2015
Words 224
Here’s an article from the Harvard Business Review which argues that the Internet is killing job creation in the middle class. The Internet […] has…
Reddit Thread on Technological Unemployment
Date April 06, 2015
Words 200
Interesting thread over at Reddit: Which jobs will never be replaced by machines? . The top answer: I think jobs where people need a human-human…
Fortis Smart Meters
Date April 16, 2015
Words 110
The city in Canada gets rid of meter readers in favor of smart meters. If you’re under 10 years old, you may never remember what a meter reader…
LaGuardia’s New Checkout
Date April 16, 2015
Words 15
All of the checkout clerks at LaGuardia’s convenience stores have apparently been replaced with machines.
Automated Strawberry Picker
Date April 20, 2015
Words 168
Wither the migrant agricultural laborer: Harvest CROO Robotics Develops Strawberry Picker, the Latest Solution in Agricultural Robotics Harvest CROO…
The Power Company’s Argument for Smart Meters
Date April 20, 2015
Words 317
This is a press release from ComEd about the installation of smart meters in Chatham, which is a neighborhood in South Chicago, It’s fascinating in…
Raising the Retirement Age Because We Can
Date April 22, 2015
Words 226
Here’s an article about the idea to raise retirement age which argues we should actually lower it. It starts with some common knowledge about…
The Millenium Project Study on Future Employment
Date April 27, 2015
Words 129
The Millenium Project is doing a study on the future of work, entitled: Future of Work and Glocal Strategies to Improve Long-Term Prospects The…
The Machines Are Workers, Not Tools
Date April 30, 2015
Words 75
From the introduction of Rise of the Robots by Martin Ford. [This] is an era that will be defined by a fundamental shift in the relationship between…
Robot Strawberry Picker Re-visited
Date May 04, 2015
Words 187
An article with more about the robot strawberry picker , but this article claims it will fix a labor shortage, and why this shortage exists. For some…
Single Man Railroad Crews
Date May 12, 2015
Words 194
Railroad companies are trying to reduce the number of employees onboard trains : Railroads have proposed eliminating the job of on-board conductor on…
Unimate
There is a Robot Hall of Fame , One of the inductees is the first automobile assembly line robot: Unimate : In 1961 the first industrial robot,…
Driverless Trucks in the Oil Sands
Date June 11, 2015
Words 115
Falling oil prices and revenue have gotten oil sands producers interested in driver-less trucks. Suncor is buying 175 of them. The layoffs will be…
Auto Insurance Disruption
Date June 15, 2015
Words 81
Self-driving cars will disrupt more than the automotive industry. They’ll mess with the insurance industry too . […] getting rid of the driver could…
The Freightliner Inspiration
Date June 15, 2015
Words 102
Freightliner has a semi-autonomous truck licensed for use in Nevada . The lorry has the same “NHTSA Level 3” rating as Google’s self-driving car,…
The Gig Economy
Date June 15, 2015
Words 70
An interesting term is in this article about Uber drivers trying to file for unemployment . The companies of the gig economy, the on-demand economy,…
Technological Employment Debate
Date June 15, 2015
Words 121
A Yale researcher is on the record about technological unemployment : Thanks to the efficiency of the internet and automated systems, productivity…
McDonald’s Order Kiosks
Date July 08, 2015
Words 11
Here are some order and pay kiosks that McDonalds is testing.
Why Today Isn’t a Luddite Fallacy
Date July 09, 2015
Words 91
Here’s an argument that the reason why our current predicament isn’t a Luddite Fallacy is because of the rate of change. But what is missing from…
Robots and Humans Working Together for Amazon
Date July 09, 2015
Words 207
An article about how humans and robots are working together in Amazon’s warehouse. The shelves move. In previous generations of its fulfillment…
Empathy
Date July 25, 2015
Words 90
Meg Bear was a VP for Oracle, In this LinkedIn post she makes this point which shows how computers and humans will never be the same: I have come to…
Why We Will Always Need Humans
Date July 25, 2015
Words 337
Here’s a phenomenal article adapted from an upcoming book: Humans Are Underrated . The article seeks an answer to this question: What are the…
Don’t Fear the Robots
Date July 28, 2015
Words 130
Here’s an article which argues that we should welcome an increase in automation and productivity: […] don’t worry that the robots will take your job.…
Automating the Twilight of DVD-By-Mail
Date July 31, 2015
Words 143
Here’s some information on Netflix’s eventually-doomed DVD-by-mail business and how they’re keeping it going by making it more efficient using…
Automation and the Balance of Power
Date July 31, 2015
Words 172
There’s not a lot new in this New York Times piece from April , but this quote is a good summation of the problem. This is the way technology is…
Replacing Humans with Robots
Date August 06, 2015
Words 200
The title of this post is apparently the title of an official Chinese government program which subsidizes and rewards companies for actively…
Will Your Job Be Automated?
Date August 06, 2015
Words 110
NPR has come up with a cute, if simplistic, app to tell you if your job will be automated . The parameters it reviews are: Do you need to come up…
Writing Gigs; Payment By The Page
Date August 07, 2015
Words 192
Inside an article about Amazon’s business practices , there’s an interesting note about how the “gig economy” is coming to book writing: Amazon…
Money for Free
Date August 09, 2015
Words 187
Here’s an interesting documentary from a Dutch “future affairs” television series on the idea of a “basic income” and how it might work. The idea is…
We Live to Work
Date August 24, 2015
Words 68
Here’s an interesting article on how white collar work in the U.S. will resist automation because we will simply invent more work , because that’s…
The Onion on Automation
Date September 08, 2015
Words 110
The Onion offers this humorous respite: Secretary Of Labor Assures Nation There Still Plenty Of Jobs For Americans Willing To Outwork Robots : During…
Pilotless Planes
Date September 09, 2015
Words 94
It seems that planes don’t even need pilots . Advances in sensor technology, computing and artificial intelligence are making human pilots less…
Server-less Restaurants
Date September 09, 2015
Words 99
We don’t need waiters anymore , apparently, as a new place in San Francisco is trying to prove. At this restaurant, customers order, pay and receive…
World Summit on Technological Unemployment
Date September 21, 2015
Words 85
There’s an upcoming conference on technological unemployment: The World Summit on Technological Unemployment is the first high-level forum and…
Automation and The Minimum Wage
Date October 21, 2015
Words 74
The tail end of this NY Times opinion piece on raising the minimum wage includes this bit about the threat of automation as a reason not to raise the…
Politicians Take Notice of the Gig Economy
Date October 21, 2015
Words 107
Politicians are working with start-ups to understand the so-called “gig economy.” It’s driving conversations about worker protections, lack of health…
The Threat to White Collar Jobs
Date October 21, 2015
Words 101
This article argues that it’s not just middle class jobs at risk. Indeed, there’s apparently nothing special about white collar jobs either. “The…
Good Analytics Means Less Workers
Date October 22, 2015
Words 135
Here’s an interesting note in the middle of this article about temp workers at Amazon : At the same time, we are living in an era of maximum…
Middle Management and The Gig Economy
Date October 29, 2015
Words 96
This article claims that the Gig Economy has another casualty: middle management. With real-time rating systems, we’re turning into a world of…
Life on Chicken Assembly Line
Date October 31, 2015
Words 108
Interesting information in this article about how automation drives the pace of a chicken assembly line. Today, the maximum permissible rate is 140…
Automation Replacing Jobs at Panera?
Date November 03, 2015
Words 200
There is significant conservative spin on this article , clearly, but it summarizes what apparently happening on an earnings call for Panera Bread.…
Reduced to Helping the Machines
Date November 25, 2015
Words 48
“The newest space, and the one that’s most exciting, is where machines are actually in charge, but they have enough awareness to seek out people to…
The Fourth Industrial Revolution
Date January 25, 2016
Words 148
Swiss Bank UBS has released a report saying that the move to automation is the “fourth industrial revolution,” and will drive considerable gains to…
Rise of the Robots
Date January 25, 2016
Words 311
Martin Ford’s book, Rise of the Robots was on many “best of” books for 2015, It’s a broad overview of the problems of automation and the potential…
The Gig Economy for Welfare
Date January 29, 2016
Words 203
Two conservative Washington policy wonks write in Politico that we should use the gig economy to put welfare recipients to work: Historically, some…
Narrative Science
Date January 29, 2016
Words 550
Narrative Science is a company that launched out of a project at the Intelligent Information Lab at Northwestern University. They make a software…
Robot Farming
Date January 29, 2016
Words 78
Japan is going to harvest lettuce with robots . So much so that Spread is creating the world’s first farm manned entirely by robots. Instead of…
Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us
Date February 02, 2016
Words 472
Bill Joy is one of the world’s great computer scientists, He started Sun Microsystems, and he had a lot to do with the creation of the Java…
The Crash of Air France Flight 447
Date February 05, 2016
Words 368
A Vanity Fair article examines the 2009 crash of Air France flight 447, which went down in the Atlantic en route from Brazil to France. The Human…
Disembodied Objects of Speed and Efficiency
Date February 05, 2016
Words 106
In a discussion about automated business processing in Mindless: Why Smarter Machines are Making Dumber Humans . It is here perhaps that IBM gets us…
Will the machines ever wake up?
Date February 06, 2016
Words 218
Could we ever replicate consciousness in machines? Might they ever become sentient like Skynet in the Terminator films? TechCrunch looks at the…
Y Combinator Basic Income Study
Date February 06, 2016
Words 177
Y Combinator – the startup incubator – is about to start up a study on the feasibility of basic income . We’re going to try something new – our first…
NASA Investigates Single Pilot Operations in Commercial Aircraft
Date February 08, 2016
Words 203
NASA is investigating the idea of aircraft with a single pilot , rather than the two in use today. The key is that a second officer is present as…
Buzzfeed Talks to Uber and Lyft Drivers
Date February 10, 2016
Words 84
Buzzfeed made a video where they took rights with Uber and Lyft drives and talked to the about driverless cars and what it might mean for their jobs,…
Robot Sex Dolls
Date February 10, 2016
Words 233
So, Real Doll has been around for years – I remember them being a blocked site on my company’s computer network back in 2000 or so, The company makes…