Paul Roehrig - Monster: A Tough Love Letter On Taming The Machines That Rule Our Jobs, Lives, and Future

Paul Roehrig | Ben Pring

A Tough Love Letter On Taming The Machines That Rule Our Jobs, Lives, and Future

Copyright 2021 by Paul Roehrig and Ben Pring. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002.

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available:

ISBN 9781119785910 (Hardcover)

ISBN 9781119785927 (ePDF)

ISBN 9781119785934 (ePub)

Cover art, original illustrations, and interior book design by Andy Barker at theethicalbrandingco.co.uk

In which we explore one of the great questions of our time: Have we inadvertently created technology that is hurting our society, our economy, and even our minds?

w e love technology. Waze, Netflix, Shazam, Hotel Tonight, Spotify, the MRI that diagnosed Bens back problem, Gmail, Headspace, Alexa, even on occasion the corporate travel application. Technology is a miracle something that has made billions of peoples lives around the world materially better. Including ours.

We Ben and Paul have worked in tech most of our professional lives, as IT analysts, management consultants, and technology practitioners, playing a small role in creating and shaping an industry that employs a significant percentage of the worlds working population and is now worth an eye-watering $4 trillion a year. We have unashamedly been technology evangelists. But recently something has changed, and now weve become worried. Why? Because we increasingly come across not as tech evangelists but as tech apologists.

AI is the great story of our time! we say (on stages around the world).

Data is the new oil.

Everything that can be automated will be automated.

Hyper-personalization is key to competitive advantage.

Dont be a bad robot be a good human being.

Contact tracing is key to stopping the coronavirus.

Pre-digital dinosaurs roam the earth. Dont be one.

People nod, and often applaud, which is nice, but then the real questions start.

How many jobs will AI destroy?

What should my kids study?

How can we compete against pure digital companies?

What will ordinary, non-tech-savvy people do in a world of brilliant tech superstars?

Will we need to sacrifice our freedom for our health?

How can I beat the robots?

What about Universal Basic Income?

Will the Fourth Industrial Revolution lead to a real revolution?

What scares you?

Typically, we nod, pause, smile, and say, Thats a very good question. Then we try our best to convey a message that acknowledges the concern in the questioners mind but also provides a positive, hopeful point of view: If we take the right actions now, things are going to be OK. Better than OK, in fact.

Lately, though, weve started feeling less certain that things are going to be better than OK.

And its in that light that we attempt in this short book to ask and begin to answer perhaps the most important questions of our time:

Have we inadvertently built some kind of technology monster that is attacking our society, our economy, and even our individual psychology? If so, what should we do about it?

In our last book, What To Do When Machines Do Everything (published 2017), we didnt shy away from the impact tech has had and will have on disrupting jobs or spurring other downsides of progress and innovation. We laid out a vision that artificial intelligence (AI) and other new technologies are simply the next generation of powerful productivity tools for us to use wisely. These tools will change our world, as new tools always have, by taking us to the next level of potential and achievement.

So far, overall, weve been largely right. While its true that the pandemic is clearly reshaping how and where we work, its also the case that forecasts of AI and robots causing a job apocalypse were overblown. Before the pandemic, employment numbers were at record levels in the Western world, and many sectors show signs of quick recovery. Being pragmatic optimists about technology has seen us stand out in crowds of doom-mongers and dystopians.

But concerns about technologys negative side have grown stronger and stronger since we published Machines, and despite our best efforts to the contrary, the zeitgeist that surrounds technology has become steadily bleaker. Even at a moment when tech has been a lifeline for people stuck at home during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Central to this darkening mood have been four key trends:

1. The persistent sense of dread (even in the absence of any real evidence) that brilliant machines will outpace even the most brilliant of minds.
2. The ubiquity of social media (and growing awareness of its negative impact at a micro and macro level).
3. The unholy pas de deux between big money and big tech.
4. The pervasive feeling that in aggregate, tech is making our jobs, personal lives, and even our societies somehow worse, rather than better.