A World Without Work

Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond

By: Daniel Susskind

Narrated by: Daniel Susskind

"An Oxford economics professor, Susskind has a patient delivery that benefits from his authoritative voice and scholarly view of this speculative subject...an important and eye-opening audiobook." (AudioFile Magazine)

This program is read by the author.

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.

©2020 Daniel Susskind (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

Not Just Another "They Took Our Jerbs" Book

This book explores what automation does and how it integrates with an economy. The author makes the case that where there are similarities to the current wave of automation putting people out of work in a way that reminiscent of what happened at the dawn of the Industrial Age, this time it is different. Read on if you want to lean why this time it appears to be different.

Fascinating, thought provoking, troubling

I really appreciated the thorough review and in depth analysis of the future of work. The questions raised are very profound and pressing. I hold a more pessimistic view of the role that governments and corporations will have in shaping a world of less work. I hope Dr. Susskind's foresight is more accurate than mine.

good listen , worth the time

great listen , sections may appear unstructured and repetitive for some parts but very throughly researched and facts about future of work drawing upon historical learnings and how to prepare for what is to come in the age of AI and Automarion and addressing a key aspect of work when it relates to ability to learn but meaningful work and how it would change.

Fascinating & Well Researched Ideas

An outstanding analysis of how the world might function, look, and act as automation begins to have a larger impact on national and international economics. Drawing on ideas from the big economists such as Smith, Kaynes, and Milton, the author makes a good argument for what he calls ‘Conditional Basic Income’. If you’re interested in economics of the future, then this is the book for you.

Technology deflation through the econ lens

Susskind, along with most economists is trapped by existing economic models, economics has a foundation of scarcity in it's models. What he doesn't say is that technology is both deflationary and exponential, he dodges this as an issue, if you look at the trends for Moore's Law, Swanson's Law, or the Cost of Genome sequencing you see cost curves that are accelerating. Susskind's Conditional Basic Income (CBI) doesn't address the accelerating nature of these factors and his dismissal of UBI doesn't address this either.

Great until the end

So much of the book was so interesting but the entire last section focused on solutions was wildly disappointing, utopian and unrealistic. It undermines the rest of the book.

You change as you read!

Absolutely mindblowing, transformative comparisons, projections and conclusions about the future brought to the reader from a totally new perspectives and prisms... finding answers or pondering about their absence on how the world should prepare for technological unemployment, automation anxiety, providing evidence of how AI or AGI will effect every corner or sphere of our lives starting from remodeling of the societies, policy making, economy, social values, morale, education and even religions as we know them today and as we approach the world with less work for humans.
A MUST read not only for those in whose hands our future lives lay, but for every citizen on this planet by all means!

Great read and very informative

Loved the read and would recommend to anyone still working or with kids that will need to work

Brilliant.

I hope when you are not working you have the privilege to enjoy this book
Steven Lamm m.d

An important treatise for policy makers of the future

All politicians, policy makers and CEOs should read and utilize the valuable and humane points Daniel Susskind has made in this book. It will become more relevant Day by Day.