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Product Description
Product Description
What will the economy of the future look like? Where will advancing technology, job automation, outsourcing and globalization lead? This groundbreaking book by a Silicon Valley computer engineer explores these questions and shows how accelerating technology is likely to have a highly disruptive influence on our economy in the near future--and may well already be a significant factor in the current global crisis. THE LIGHTS IN THE TUNNEL employs a powerful thought experiment to explore the economy of the future. An imaginary "tunnel of lights" is used to visualize the economic implications of the new technologies that are likely to appear in the coming years and decades. The book directly challenges conventional views of the future and illuminates the danger that lies ahead if we do not plan for the impact of rapidly advancing technology. It also shows how the economic realities of the future might offer solutions to issues such as poverty and climate change.
About the Author
MARTIN FORD is the founder of a Silicon Valley-based software firm. He has over twenty-five years experience in the fields of computer design and software development. He holds a computer engineering degree from the University of Michigan and a graduate business degree from the University of California, Los Angeles.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I should begin by admitting that I have never given much thought to the overall effects of technological progress on our society. I've always subscribed to the conventional view that technology has freed us from drudgery and enriched our lives, and that continued advances are the key to increasing our overall quality of life.
This is the first book I've read that has really made me question these beliefs. Other reviewers have done a good job of explaining the book's structure, so I won't go into detail - but suffice to say that Martin Ford makes a strong case that we're approaching a point beyond which our current economic system simply won't be sustainable. And given the rate of recent progress, that point probably isn't more than a decade or two away.
I'm sure that the book's central theme will seem radical and unpalatable to many readers. But it's very hard to find fault with the author's logic - he argues each step carefully and the conclusions seem inescapable if you accept the basic premise that technology is going to continue its relentless onward march.
Overall, a terrific (if somewhat worrying) book, and one that deserves to be widely read.
This is the first book I've read that has really made me question these beliefs. Other reviewers have done a good job of explaining the book's structure, so I won't go into detail - but suffice to say that Martin Ford makes a strong case that we're approaching a point beyond which our current economic system simply won't be sustainable. And given the rate of recent progress, that point probably isn't more than a decade or two away.
I'm sure that the book's central theme will seem radical and unpalatable to many readers. But it's very hard to find fault with the author's logic - he argues each step carefully and the conclusions seem inescapable if you accept the basic premise that technology is going to continue its relentless onward march.
Overall, a terrific (if somewhat worrying) book, and one that deserves to be widely read.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In this interesting book, Martin Ford looks at the qualitatively different nature of modern technological change. He takes the line that fast advances in processing power are allowing computers to encroach on "humans only" areas, firstly as expert assistants and subsequently as autonomous agents. In other words computers initially help the pilot fly the aircraft but eventually take over the controls themselves.
He particularly sees skilled work being automated to generate unemployment among professional groups like architects, accountants and lawyers and considers the economic cost of this demand (income) being removed from the economy.
The author sees advanced automation as something very new and highly recessionary and in the last two chapters casts around for ways to put the lost demand back into the economy. He doesn't seem very convinced with his own answers (which don't in fact seem very realistic) but he suggests a new government run welfare system taxing successful automated business and returning the automation surplus to the unemployed in return for attainments in education and protecting the environment (his green lights in the economic tunnel).
He doesn't consider the obvious idea of letting the owners of automated businesses keep their surplus but obliging them to spend it rather than taxing it away. The direct effect on demand would actually be enhanced as the government is removed from the equation but you could describe the recipients as purple lights as they may be supporting a new feudal system around the vast spending of a few technology "aristocrats" presumably building new Versailles'.
In the appendix he looks at the hard AI result that is bound to arrive at some point and says, "These visions include things such as truly intelligent machines and advanced nanotechnology that would allow us to transform matter..." when he could of course have said, "...allow them to transform matter...". They are intelligent after all, and a purely human centric view would be inadequate.
He particularly sees skilled work being automated to generate unemployment among professional groups like architects, accountants and lawyers and considers the economic cost of this demand (income) being removed from the economy.
The author sees advanced automation as something very new and highly recessionary and in the last two chapters casts around for ways to put the lost demand back into the economy. He doesn't seem very convinced with his own answers (which don't in fact seem very realistic) but he suggests a new government run welfare system taxing successful automated business and returning the automation surplus to the unemployed in return for attainments in education and protecting the environment (his green lights in the economic tunnel).
He doesn't consider the obvious idea of letting the owners of automated businesses keep their surplus but obliging them to spend it rather than taxing it away. The direct effect on demand would actually be enhanced as the government is removed from the equation but you could describe the recipients as purple lights as they may be supporting a new feudal system around the vast spending of a few technology "aristocrats" presumably building new Versailles'.
In the appendix he looks at the hard AI result that is bound to arrive at some point and says, "These visions include things such as truly intelligent machines and advanced nanotechnology that would allow us to transform matter..." when he could of course have said, "...allow them to transform matter...". They are intelligent after all, and a purely human centric view would be inadequate.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
A what-if scenario on the prospect of uber-high unemployment in the long-term due to the progression of automation from the factory into the office, and the effect on the viability of the mass-market as legions of people become unemployed.
I particularly liked his perspective of looking at the mass-market as a shared resource which needs to be looked after - like water etc. Although I'm not sure I agree the future will unfold quite this way, he definitely provides food for thought and he has some interesting remedies.
I particularly liked his perspective of looking at the mass-market as a shared resource which needs to be looked after - like water etc. Although I'm not sure I agree the future will unfold quite this way, he definitely provides food for thought and he has some interesting remedies.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Right on target and needing urgent attention by policymakers
This is an important and timely book. Its message has radical and urgent relevance to management of the current economic crisis engulfing the developed world. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Geoff Crocker
Very disappointing
Oh dear. A technologist ventures into economics, thinking an extended analogy is an argument. But of course it isn't: rather it becomes merely a framework on which to hang the... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Taylor
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