The work of the future / David Autor et al

MIT established a working group for studying the work of the future, or how intelligent machines will shape our jobs, back in early 2018. The working group published some studies, of which Autor, Mindell, and Reynolds have now compiled a book. 

The book describes, as the working group found out, how the machines of some intelligence will change industries, and how both societies and companies should and can adapt. The main message is that machines will not take over, that there will be plentiful jobs for workers, for all of us, also in the future. There is no compelling historical or contemporary evidence telling us that a jobless future awaits. Whatever will be, will take shape gradually. 

This is good news, because work is important for many reasons: for money, but also as a way to express oneself, to feel important, and to meet other people, and to live in a society as full members, as the working group stresses. 

The book documents reasons for its claims rather thoroughly, but I will not delve into them. Instead, I will pick up some recommendations from the summary of the book. 

For the government, at least in the USA, the book recommends investing in technology and innovation, in the way it has in DARPA etc in the past. It is not good to succumb to austerity. Only the government can make sure that financing of new technologies last long enough. Companies will then take the new science and technology to the marker. 

The government should also make sure that most (or more) people get four-year college degrees, increase minimum wage, drop the requirement for the unemployed to seek for full-time work, and make sure the that the workers can unionize, take part in corporate governance, and increase collective bargaining (quite the opposite what the Finnish government is doing nowadays)

The book focuses on problems the USA is facing, but since the Finnish government is foolish enough to copy the worst from the USA, I would recommend the book to all Finnish politicians. Even though I know they would not either read it or believe what they have read.