A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond

by Daniel Susskind

Overview

SHORTLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES & MCKINSEY 2020 BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR
One of Fortune Best Books of the Year
One of Inc. Best Business Books of the Year
One of The Times (UK) Best Business Books of the Year
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice

From an Oxford economist, a visionary account of how technology will transform the world of work, and what we should do about it

From mechanical looms to the combustion engine to the first computers, new technologies have always provoked panic about workers being replaced by machines. For centuries, such fears have been misplaced, and many economists maintain that they remain so today. But as Daniel Susskind demonstrates, this time really is different. Breakthroughs in artificial intelligence mean that all kinds of jobs are increasingly at risk.

Drawing on almost a decade of research in the field, Susskind argues that machines no longer need to think like us in order to outperform us, as was once widely believed. As a result, more and more tasks that used to be far beyond the capability of computers – from diagnosing illnesses to drafting legal contracts, from writing news reports to composing music – are coming within their reach. The threat of technological unemployment is now real.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, Susskind emphasizes. Technological progress could bring about unprecedented prosperity, solving one of humanity’s oldest problems: how to make sure that everyone has enough to live on. The challenges will be to distribute this prosperity fairly, to constrain the burgeoning power of Big Tech, and to provide meaning in a world where work is no longer the center of our lives. Perceptive, pragmatic, and ultimately hopeful, A World Without Work shows the way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250808257
Publisher:	Picador
Publication date:	05/04/2021
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	435,375
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Daniel Susskind is the coauthor, with Richard Susskind, of The Future of the Professions, named as one of the best books of the year by the Financial Times, New Scientist, and the Times Literary Supplement. He is a fellow in economics at Balliol College, Oxford University. Previously, he worked in the British government – as a policy adviser in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, as a policy analyst in the Policy Unit in 10 Downing Street, and as a senior policy adviser in the Cabinet Office.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: The Context
1. A History of Misplaced Anxiety
2. The Age of Labor
3. The Pragmatist Revolution
4. Underestimating Machines

Part II: The Threat
5. Task Encroachment
6. Frictional Technological Unemployment
7. Structural Technological Unemployment
8. Technology and Inequality

Part III: The Response
9. Education and Its Limits
10. The Big State
11. Big Tech
12. Meaning and Purpose

Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index

Editorial Reviews

Compelling... Thought-provoking... Should be required reading for any potential presidential candidate thinking about the economy of the future.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Susskind guides the reader through a boneyard of discredited assumptions about technological unemployment… An explainer rather than a polemic, written in the relentlessly reasonable tone that dominates popular economics: the voice of a clever, sensible man telling you what’s what.”
—The Guardian

“Convincing and illuminating... A complex yet lucid and surprisingly optimistic account from the frontlines of technology addressing the challenges facing the human workforce.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Susskind’s book is so timely, to miss it might be downright irresponsible.”
—Booklist

“A superb and sophisticated contribution to the debate over work in the age of artificial intelligence. Susskind approaches the discussion with a great command of the evidence and with excellent judgment. Never glib, consistently wise and well informed, this is the book to read to understand how digital technologies and artificial intelligence in particular are reshaping the economy and labor market, and how we will live alongside increasingly smart machines.”
—Jeffrey Sachs, author of The End of Poverty

“Susskind has written a fascinating book about a vitally important topic—and he writes with such elegance that you don’t even notice how much you’re learning. Original and compelling.”
—Tim Harford, author of The Undercover Economist

“This is the book to read on the future of work in the age of artificial intelligence. It is thoughtful and state of the art on the economics of the issue, but its real strength is the way it goes beyond just the economics. A truly important contribution that deserves widespread consideration.”
—Lawrence H. Summers

“Eloquent and humane, A World Without Work moves the debate beyond the illusion that technology always creates more jobs than it destroys. It provocatively explores the role of work in human life, and what to do when that role evaporates.”
—Stuart Russell, author of Human Compatible

“Daniel Susskind offers an authoritative and hype-free perspective on how technology will change work. This eloquent and humane book deserves wide readership—and wide influence.”
—Martin Rees, author of On the Future

“An important book on an equally important topic. Susskind’s conclusion is that ultimately there will be less paid work to go around. This will shake the foundations of our economy and our society. It will be a daunting challenge. We have to start thinking hard about it now.”
—Martin Wolf, author of The Shifts and the Shocks

From the Publisher

Even if Susskind's prediction is wrong—that machines will soon render many humans irrelevant in the labor market—his book provides a useful exercise in planning for a more unequal future.

The New York Times Book Review - Alana Semuels

10/28/2019

A thorough and sobering look at automation and the depreciation of human labor arrives from Oxford economics fellow Susskind (The Future of the Professions, coauthor). It turns on an important question: will there be enough work to employ people throughout the 21st century? Sorry but no, Susskind concludes; machines can’t do everything, but they can do much more than they’re doing currently, and will inevitably displace many more workers. He isn’t in despair, however, as he has some possible remedies in mind. Before dispensing them, he briskly covers the rise of artificial intelligence, the social problems raised by economic inequality, and the efficacy of education for protecting economically insecure workers, which he finds more limited than optimists would have people think. Susskind then posits what he believes are more effective long-term responses, including increased government intervention into the free market, targeted tax incentives for employers, and strengthened regulation aimed at changing the behavior of big technology companies. This dense but lively investigation is not for the reader who wants an easy dinner-party answer, but the curious worrier or the skeptic who wants to understand the theory behind the machines will want to take a look. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

11/22/2019

Susskind (economics, Balliol Coll., Oxford Univ.; coauthor, The Future of the Professions) presents strong evidence that the progress of artificial intelligence (AI) will eventually result in markedly less work, and jobs, for people, and makes a compelling case that there are few jobs that cannot eventually be performed using AI. He predicts as a result an increase in both societal wealth and unemployment. In addition, Susskind argues for "conditional basic income" (CBI) as opposed to universal basic income, which allows people to receive an income without requiring anything in return. His theory of CBI assures that those receiving the basic income make contributions to society; for example, caregiving or educating. Susskind maintains these positions are important in order to ensure that all are contributing to society, even if they do not have a paid position, and to give those without jobs a sense of meaning or purpose to their lives. VERDICT This work is sure to be controversial, but it will find an audience with those interested in public policy relating to unemployment and inequality.—Shmuel Ben-Gad, Gelman Lib., George Washington Univ., Washington, DC

Library Journal

The author narrates his complex but compelling audiobook in what might be called the English explanatory style. In rounded British- inflected tones, he explains that the fear of job loss to robots and computers is real but the reality will be quite gradual. An Oxford economics professor, Susskind has a patient delivery that benefits from his authoritative voice and scholarly view of this speculative subject. An expert on AI and longtime student of how work in the future will be expropriated by thinking machines, Susskind provides a precise delivery that makes his data-driven arguments understandable. While his prognostications do lean heavily on what he dubs “Big Tech” and “the Big State,” this is an important and eye-opening audiobook. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2020 - AudioFile

2019-10-23
A report on how robotic automation is displacing the need for human workers.

Oxford University economics fellow Susskind (co-author: The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts, 2016) spent nearly a decade researching how the rise of mechanical manufacturing, computerized production, and artificial intelligence is directly and unstoppably affecting the human workforce. He delivers a worst-case scenario in the form of an update on the economic and workforce landscape upheaval that has been in motion for decades thanks to a steep uptick in the integration of robotic production and AI. Sometimes densely academic, Susskind's pragmatic narrative is bolstered by statistical charts and graphs supporting his theories. The author diligently explains the history of these replacement technologies, the patterns they followed, and why their impacts on the giants of industry should be taken seriously. The threat of "technological unemployment" is very real, he writes, and the problems it creates will consist of increased outperformance by automated workers and a subsequent dwindling array of tasks that could be considered human-specific. Susskind also addresses the growing problem of economic inequality by way of the disparity between power-hungry, financially astute "supermanagers" (so named by economist Thomas Piketty) and stagnant workers with lower-paying jobs. Thankfully, the author doesn't deliver this grim prognosis without a proactive response or hints at how a complementary workforce fueling economic stabilization could be achieved in the long term. He posits a multitiered approach involving new skills-based education for laborers, increased regulatory control over larger technology companies, the introduction of a "robot tax," and financial incentives for employers using a sizable manual labor force. Susskind's economic perspective makes the conundrum crystal clear, and he makes a convincing and illuminating argument to decelerate the onset of global "automation anxiety."

A complex yet lucid and surprisingly optimistic account from the frontlines of technology addressing the challenges facing the human workforce.

Kirkus Reviews