The Technology Trap - Carl Benedikt Frey

-
ISBN: 978-0691172798
Verdict: 👍👍 👍

This is one of those books that you have to read in full to fully appreciate, with its well-researched examples to support the concept behind the book. 

The book highlights how current automation and Artificial intelligent(AI) systems trends can be used with an historical economic lens to project and address the economic, political and social affects that will arise and by using examples from the industrial revolution when technology displaced workers we can predict the effects of technologies like driverless cars.

I like the structured approach to present the argument and learnt along the way with references to various paradox (Moravec, Polanyi etc..) which I had not come across before and had to look up 

Here are some bits I highlighted in the book. however, there were quite a few so I couldn't  list them all ;

  • The pre-industrial era did not suffer a shortage of imagination, it suffered from a shortage of realization.” P73
  • Parliament passed an act in 1769 that made the destruction of machines a felony punishable by death – P127 .. now I didn’t know that !
  • Technical change became increasingly labor-augmenting instead of labor-replacing P133
  • The bargaining power of unions depends on the value of the skills and knowledge of the workers they represent P201
  • In the end, for most people, the main source of their income is not physical or financial capital , but human capital. The wealth of workers is in their skills. P213
  • A computer would have an easy time beating the world class chess champion Magnus Carlsen, but it would be unable to clean the chess pieces after the game and put them back in the right place. Any human cleaner still outperforms computer-controlled machines in perception, dexterity and mobility” P236 This summed up quite a bit for me !
  • However, for all the differences, these studies concur that unskilled jobs are most exposed to automation P322

I found this a nice read: it’s not a technology book per se, but a economic technology book with a focus on the emerging AI technologies

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Surrounded by Idiots – The Four Types of Human Behaviour (or, How to Understand those Who Cannot Be Understood) – Thomas Erikson

-
Image
ISBN:  978-1-78504-218-8 Verdict :👍👍 I enjoyed reading this book with its elaboration of the concepts that centre around the D ominance, I nducement, S ubmission and A nalytics ability (DISA) system for  human  communication which the Author breaks into 4 Color Types ( Red , Yellow , Blue & Green ) and says that " behaviour.Its like a  recipe  - we need to understand all the ingredients before we bake the cake " p13 The book discusses the various  behavioural  traits of individuals which the author centers around a 4 square color model, with each color representing a specific trait and some behavioral patterns associated with the colors - here are some snippets; The Quote "Only Dead Fish Go with the Flow" to describe Reds is classical where Reds are quick thinkers and one on long before everyone else. Yellows can be amusing, creative and elevate the mood regardless of who they are with         p64 " Greens are easy to hangout with..
Read more

IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation - Edwin Black

-
Image
ISBN :  978-0-609-90899 Verdict :  👍👍   👍👍 I actually read this book when it was first published, about 19 years ago, hence the ISBN number does not correspond to that on Amazon ( weird ). However, I decided to revisit this book after reading a misleading post from an IBM Employee promoting the historical credentials in a positive way.  So I picked it up again and scan read taking note of the bits I had previously highlighted approx 2 decades ago to write this review. I t’s one of those books that one should read if interested in the link / connection between business and political regimes.   IBM and its German subsidiary custom-designed complex solutions anticipating the Reich's needs. The amazing thing is that IBM did not sell the machines and walk away. Instead, IBM leased these machines for high fees and became the sole source of the billions of punch cards Hitler needed to execute the functionality of the machine - execute being an key word ! For me the one thing that stic
Read more

Red Teaming ( Transform Your Business by Thinking Like the Enemy) - Bryce G Hoffman

-
Image
  ISBN: 978-0-349-43146-6 Verdict: 👍 👍   👍   👍   I picked this book up in a charity shop in London’s Portobello Market and after reading it I felt guilty for not paying the full price as this book is definitely great value in terms of both information and advice provided. As you may be aware I judge a book by the number of insights I highlight as I read a book and in this case the book was ruined by my highlights – Thus, I would strongly recommend reading this book.   The core concept of Red Teaming is nothing new, i.e. the role of the devil’s advocate , however what this book promotes is structure and how to provoke as opposed to formal assessments of strategies, plans, assumptions etc. I will not , as my usual pattern, share some quotes from the book as having purchased this at a charity shop I want to encourage others to get a copy and look at it - It will be very much worth it !
Read more