How Technology Is Destroying Jobs in the U.S.
The new issue of MIT Technology Review that hit newsstands Wednesday explores the role of technological automation in pushing humans to the perimeter of activities where they were once the central actors — in war and in the workplace.
In the feature “How Technology Is Destroying Jobs,” editor David Rotman explains how robots, automation, and software have increased the productivity of the U.S. at the same time that job growth has wilted.
He concludes that economists don’t know if the decoupling of productivity from employment is permanent but says, “It’s hard to ignore … that technology is widening the income gap between the tech-savvy and everyone else.”
Drones are the subject of Fred Kaplan’s feature, “The World as Free-Fire Zone.” They have changed warfare by making it easy to kill nearly any particular person anywhere, making them the favored technology in the global war on terror.
Both features suggest that we must think about how we wish to use new technologies and not be used by them.
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An independent media company owned by MIT, the MIT Technology Review produces publications targeting business leaders, innovators, and thought leaders around the globe, in six languages and on a variety of platforms.
The issue also contains other technology news, opinion columns, and a demo on creating plastics out of plants, as well as a Business Report on big data.
Photo courtesy: MIT Technology Review
