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Technophobia distracts people from real economic problems

We might not have expected much resistance to the disease in earlier times, before evidence accumulated that the fears it inspired were irrational.

Read the whole story at Brookings

Now's the time to Start Planning

To judge from the symptomatic hand-wringing the epidemic is spreading, we are on the verge of mass unemployment as work becomes increasingly automated.

Parts of the nation’s commentariat have been seized with a nasty bout of technophobia.

Scott Winship | Brookings

We don't know what will happen. We only know what might happen. But it would be foolish not to plan for that.

A rational planning process would look something like this ......

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Connecting a Brain to a Chip

A new study says that nearly half of all American jobs may soon be performed by robots.

Richard (RJ) Eskow | The Huffington Post

Engineer Arto Nurmikko examines a prototype of a wireless, fully implantable brain-recording device.Fred Field for Brown University

Pioneering surgery that involves capturing signals from his brain and restoring movement through a fine network of electronics linked to arm muscles.

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Robot Cowboys

A paralyzed man will receive experimental surgery connecting a brain chip to systems that activate muscles in his arm.

David Talbot | MIT Technology Review

Case Western Reserve University

Watch the Video

Secretaries in many ways have Become Obsolete

When robots inevitably take over, cows will be the first things they take control of.

Ricardo Bilton | VentureBeat

YouTube

  • In 1950, clerical jobs represented three-quarters of the federal workforce.

  • Today, these jobs are a mere 4 percent of the workforce of 2.1 million. That amounts to 87,153 people, less than a quarter of them secretaries.

  • And instead of supporting one executive in the C-suite, they work for five. Or for 50, as at the General Services Administration, where one assistant works for the entire executive staff.

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Automation has been transforming the federal workforce for two generations.

Lisa Rein | The Washington Post

Bill O'Leary | The Washington Post