If humanity embraces automation, a great future awaits
The best article I read this weekend was in the MIT Technology Review. It was the third in a series about the effects of software and automation in the economy.
It doesn't take a science fiction writer to see where it's going. In a few years, there will be more machines and fewer jobs. Self-driving cars alone would be ultra-disruptive to the economy. In May, the first semi-autonomous trucks were approved for US highways.
The crux of the article boils down to this:
"Whoever owns the capital will benefit as robots and AI inevitably replace many jobs. If the rewards of new technologies go largely to the very richest, as has been the trend in recent decades, then dystopian visions could become reality. But the machines are tools, and if their ownership is more widely shared, the majority of people could use them to boost their productivity and increase both their earnings and their leisure. If that happens, an increasingly wealthy society could restore the middle-class dream that has long driven technological
