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misterfix's review against another edition
3.0
frustrating at times as it is a bit too 'tech will save us' for me but the authors do manage to discuss the challenges and the some of the costs, though they downplay these.
tonypitt's review against another edition
5.0
Interesting ideas in the later chapters. Some interesting thoughts on the changing imperatives in education.
md313's review against another edition
slow-paced
A terrible book that is an embarrassment to Stanford and MIT, the Universities that employee these "professors". This book feels like a high school assignment that had to meet a particular word count. Full of non-original research, poor historical contextualization, and zero innovative thought, this book wastes the time of the reader. I'd say it killed too many trees, but I got the audio version and was still a waste of digital download space and electrons to transfer the information. So why does it suck? 1) Extra words to make it the "acceptable" length of a book. For instance, at one point the authors explain the game show Jeopardy. Over and over they do this. 95% of their audience already knows 90% of the "information" in this book. 2) Nothing original. In fact, at the end of the book they readily admit they don't really have any new arguments to propoae. 3) Theyconflate analogies as argument; outlier past examples as evidence of future trends. This book is a waste of time.
freschne's review against another edition
4.0
In all, a very good and informative read, although the key ideas are not new to readers of Jeremy Rifkin's 1994 book "The End of Work", which, unfortunately, is not mentioned.
I especially liked the argument that "growth" is increasingly inadequately captured by GDP growth, and the point that the present fiscal system is too much labor-oriented. In general, the diagnosis was excellent. The solutions outlined by the authors, however, were much too short-term in my eyes. Especially since the authors stress that we are at an "inflection point" of history, focusing on quick fixes of the status quo (better education etc) is a little myopic. We need to be prepared for a largely laborless society within our lifetimes, which will require huge changes in the distribution of income, as the authors themselves acknowledge. This big transition will take a lot of time, so it must be started now. The authors were too light on outlining the long-term solutions. For example, how are governments going to finance negative income taxes for the legions on un(der)employed, and the necessary investments in science and infrastructure? I would have liked more detailed visions on the solutions for the "android experiment".
Lastly, for a book about technology, the ebook version is funny in that the final 15% consist of a (completely useless because the keywords are unlinked) index; it's also highly misleading as the main text already ends at 67% of the ebook. In general, the book makes the impression that it could have used another round of editing.
I especially liked the argument that "growth" is increasingly inadequately captured by GDP growth, and the point that the present fiscal system is too much labor-oriented. In general, the diagnosis was excellent. The solutions outlined by the authors, however, were much too short-term in my eyes. Especially since the authors stress that we are at an "inflection point" of history, focusing on quick fixes of the status quo (better education etc) is a little myopic. We need to be prepared for a largely laborless society within our lifetimes, which will require huge changes in the distribution of income, as the authors themselves acknowledge. This big transition will take a lot of time, so it must be started now. The authors were too light on outlining the long-term solutions. For example, how are governments going to finance negative income taxes for the legions on un(der)employed, and the necessary investments in science and infrastructure? I would have liked more detailed visions on the solutions for the "android experiment".
Lastly, for a book about technology, the ebook version is funny in that the final 15% consist of a (completely useless because the keywords are unlinked) index; it's also highly misleading as the main text already ends at 67% of the ebook. In general, the book makes the impression that it could have used another round of editing.
supernautster's review against another edition
3.0
Una revisión bastante amplia y básica del estado actual de la tecnología, la sociedad, la economía y los efectos de la primera en las dos últimas, actualmente y en el futuro.
En algunas partes, el podría pasar por algun artículo de novedades tecnológicas, no profundiza en los inconvenientes que podría crear, no menciona los efectos de los avances en el ser humano, más allá del aspecto económico.
No obstante, este libro podría servir de introducción para quienes aun no se hayan adentrado en los temas que contiene.
En algunas partes, el podría pasar por algun artículo de novedades tecnológicas, no profundiza en los inconvenientes que podría crear, no menciona los efectos de los avances en el ser humano, más allá del aspecto económico.
No obstante, este libro podría servir de introducción para quienes aun no se hayan adentrado en los temas que contiene.
lenmacrae's review against another edition
2.0
Described as fundamentally optimistic, but comes across as fundamentally naive.
subtle's review against another edition
A great book for understanding how automation will change the landscape of employment. Not a doom-and-gloom prediction of coming collapse, but not rosy either, the book lays out the dangers and opportunities that can and will arise, as well as giving suggestions and commentary on how to respond to this coming change.
ben_smitty's review against another edition
4.0
I’m currently learning how to code, so I figured reading an introduction to the tech field would be helpful. I guess seeing the big picture would help me navigate the ethical questions involved in the field, even though I’m supposed to be anti-tech as an English Lit grad. It’s sort of an unspoken rule at my school, really. Anyone in English lit (or, more accurately, people who are pro-classical lit and are anti emerging schools of thought like “digital humanities”… I mean, picture Harold Bloom reacting to the term “digital humanities”) is automatically against the developing world because people aren’t reading books any more.
Anyways, the book is really helpful for understanding how technological developments work and what we should do about the approaching mass unemployment caused by robots and computers replacing humans in everything. While the authors are optimistic (pro-tech), they are honest about policy changes that need to happen, like providing guaranteed income, allowing immigrants to innovate and create jobs again, and using technology to educate the urban poor.
Anyways, the book is really helpful for understanding how technological developments work and what we should do about the approaching mass unemployment caused by robots and computers replacing humans in everything. While the authors are optimistic (pro-tech), they are honest about policy changes that need to happen, like providing guaranteed income, allowing immigrants to innovate and create jobs again, and using technology to educate the urban poor.