Race Against the Machine

Executive Summary

This paper is briefing of book called “Race against the Machine” written by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee. This paper focuses on the impact of technology on the current employment issues. Three explanations of current economic issues that is cyclical, stagnantion and “end of work” is provided (Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2011). Then the idea of excessive progress in technology making man jobless is presented and to support it various arguments are put forward. Secondly the idea of technology development causing division of labor into high skilled, low skilled, capital, labor, superstars and ordinary labors is presented and explained in detail. Finally remedies for solving these issues are presented and explained. Major takeaways of this paper are mismatch between the productivity and job creation, interlink between Technology improvement and division of labor and importance of education in building stable skilled labors and in the developing a stable society. (Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2011)

Key terminologies

1. General purpose technologies: A small group of technologies that they interrupt and accelerate normal march of economic progress. (Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2011)

2. Productivity is the amount of output per unit of input. (Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2011)

3. Labor productivity output per worker or out per hour worked. (Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2011)

4. Technology unemployment is unemployment due to our discovery of means of economizing the use of labor outrunning the pace at which we can find new uses for labor. (Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2011)

Further Sources

1. “The New Division of Labor” by Frank Levy and Richard Murnane.

2. “Age of spiritual machines: When computers exceed human intelligence” by Ray Kurzweil.

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...nd again resulting in creation of bigger markets and pulling large competitors and creating new job opportunities, but the problem is with undefined factors like outsourcing, lack of skill development in respect with technology advancement. Technology advancement may be causing huge impact on employment but it is also making human living better. Technology as became part and parcel of our life so we can’t think of life without technology, but to make sure that the same does not harm our livelihood we should keep in track and sharpen and hone our skills with advancement of technology. (Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2011)

Bibliography

Brynjolfsson, E., & McAfee, A. (2011). Race Against the Machine: How Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity and Ireversibly Tranforming Employment and the Economy. Lexington, Massachusetts: Digital Frontier Press.