MIT Technology Review: Who Will Own the Robots?

September 19, 2015 by Admin Leave a Comment

MIT Technology Review has published an excellent series of articles about the effects that general-purpose disruptive technologies will have on our economy. This link is to their latest piece, “Who Will Own the Robots?” It is a well-written and balanced overview of the subject and a great introduction to where thinking on this subject currently […]

While the foundation of our economic system presumes a strong link between value creation and job creation, The Great Recession reveals the weakening or breakage of that link. This is not merely an artifact of the business cycle but rather a symptom of deeper structural change in the nature of production. As technology accelerates on the second half of the chessboard, so will the economic mismatches, undermining our social contract and ultimately hurting both rich and poor...

Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, Race Against The Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy

In a free market the biggest premiums go to the scarcest inputs needed for production.
In a world where capital such as software and robots can be replicated cheaply, its marginal value will tend to fall, even if more of it is used in the aggregate. And as more capital is added cheaply at the margin, the value of existing capital will actually be driven down.

- Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee, and Michael Spence
Labor, Capital and Ideas in the Power Law Economy
Foreign Affairs Magazine, July/August 2014

The Rise Of The Robot Economy

A New Epoch of Social Revolution

MIT Technology Review: Who Will Own the Robots?