Pistono - Robots Will Steal Your Job, But Thats OK: How to Survive the Economic Collapse and Be Happy

Table of Contents

ROBOTS WILL STEAL YOUR JOB
BUT THATS OK
how to survive the economic collapse and be happy

FEDERICO PISTONO

ROBOTS WILL STEAL YOUR JOB, BUT THATS OK

COPYRIGHT 2012 FEDERICO PISTONO
COVER DESIGN FEDERICO PISTONO

BOOK DESIGN FEDERICO PISTONO

CREATESPACE NOVEMBER 5, 2012

ISBN10: 1479380008

ISBN13: 978-1479380008

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Foreword

When at the beginning of 2012 I have been contacted by Federico, asking for the opportunity to exchange ideas, I was glad to comply. From an initial exchange of emails, we quickly proceeded to an online voice and video conversation, and a few days later we agreed to meet in person. He came to visit for a day and stayed for the night with me and my family.

Meeting Federico is letting sunshine in your life. His enthusiasm, curiosity, and passion for his interests and sharing experiences with others make it impossible not to like him. We had a lot of common topics to talk about, and it was great to be able to quote books, references to each other and realize that the other read them too, or mention global movements, organizations and see that we were either both following them, or actively participating in them.

This is not only a brief description of the author of this book, and my experiences with him. I think that it is also a glimpse of what more and more people will be able to do, with their time, with their interests. Using technology, and online communications to find people with shared goals. Very rapidly establish shared trust, communicate using flexible tools, and act together to advance joint objectives effectively. An exponential path to human connections!

Robots Will Steal Your Job, But Thats OK is a smart, humorous, but thorough, and potentially important approach to a fundamental question of our time. Knowing that Federico is working on it, and that during the summer of 2012 he would have the chance to enrich his views with the experiences that he would have had at Singularity University, filled me with expectation. Because, as he describes it in informative, and actionable detail, the issues of this book are going to be felt and shared by billions of people. We are all going to live a future where we will have to redefine our roles, goals, and purpose in life.

A lot of people are working of various technology solutions, and even if we dont have a guarantee, statistically speaking we can rely on one or an other of those solutions to be found, and then spreading quickly. That is why concentrating on people is important: we biological humans cant be easily debugged, our biases and fallacies are much harder to correct than the 2.0 release of any given gadget. And the process of designing a fruitful future full wonder, cannot but include the largest possible number of people aware of the opportunities we have in front of us. This is why I am so excited that this book is now available, and that you chose to read it. If you like it, as I hope, make sure to recommend it to your friends who will live, work, and love in the future with you.

David Orban
CEO of dotSUB
Advisor and Member of the Faculty,
Singularity University
October 2012, New York

Understanding the complex relationship between automation and jobs requires empirical analysis and a nuanced inquiry. Federico Pistonos book Robots Will Steal Your Job, But Thats OK is a unique and fearless contribution to the ongoing conversation on this topic. Pistono approaches the issues with a perspective that reflects his love of both people and technology. The approach is relentlessly constructive, optimistic, and controversial. Read it, then agree or disagree with various points, but join the dialog!

Neil Jacobstein
Co-chair AI and Robotics, Singularity University
October 2012, San Francisco

Dedication

To all the great people who are dedicating their lives in making the world a better place for everyone.

To the emerging and growing zeitgeist of open science, open education, open culture, creative commons, and the free software movement. You are the heroes of this generation, and give us hope for the future.

Preface

For years, I have been meaning to write a book, but I could never bring myself to finish one. Whenever I became interested in a topic, it opened up a whole new and unexplored territory, which then lead to another universe of things to discover and to understand. The more I searched, the more there was to be found. Every time I believed I had a decent understanding of a topic, something new would come up that challenged my previous assumptions. And so I was back to my studies again.

Maybe it is because I am a guy with a questioning nature. Too many things interest me, and sticking to a particular topic for long is an arduous task. Back in October 2011 I was travelling around Europe, thinking about my future, preparing a speech for my next conference, when I finally decided it was time for change. During a rainy day when I was in Sweden I realised that my goal of a 1,000-page odyssey on how to fix society was unrealistic (and a bit egomaniacal). There were too many subjects, all too complex, and with too little time. I decided I would pick one thing, one that I believed to be at the top of our priorities, and focus on that. Environmental sustainability and climate change came to mind, but there are already many excellent books on this subjects (from people much more qualified than myself), it would only be redundant. The future of technology and Artificial Intelligence was another, but the same conclusion applied. Then I realised that one of the most pressing issues that we are going to face, both as individuals and as societies, was deeply overlooked. Technology is displacing human labour.