Where Ford's first book was a revelation, his second book is a disappointment. He adds very little new to the conversation with "Rise of the Robots" - for the most part this book is a recycled laundry list of popular news articles about cool startups and technologies that are making progress in various areas of automation. If you've read his first book, [b:The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future|7488625|The Lights in the Tunnel Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future|Martin Ford|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349074225s/7488625.jpg|9623347] or [b:Race Against The Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy|12952273|Race Against The Machine How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy|Erik Brynjolfsson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1329373179s/12952273.jpg|18109192], you're better of skipping this one.

A couple interesting points:
- Zero jobs added to the economy from 2000-2010
- Investment accounts for 50% of China's GDP
- Hayek, Linus Pauling, and Myrdal authored the "Ad Hoc Committee on the Triple Revolution" report on weaponry, human rights, and technology/automation as outlined in MLK's final Sunday sermon
- Typical worker pay peaked in 1973
- Ford claims that globalization, "financialization" of the economy, and politics are NOT driving factors in the decline of jobs.
- "The total value of imports from China amounted to less than 3% of US consumer spending"
- "Progress in the human economy has resulted largely from occupational specialization" - and what could be more specialized than a computer program?
- Is opportunity cost an invalid concept for robots/software if they can be "cloned" almost for free?
- We put a lot of effort into securing out southern border to keep out immigrants who could take American jobs, but we leave our digital borders wide open by embracing globalized outsourcing
- The Beijing Genomics Institute is running a study to identify genetic determinants of intelligence - the Western world is very squeamish about studies like this
- Hayek was a proponent of a guaranteed minimum income, as stated in his 1973-79 book Law, Legislation, and Liberty
- Ford suggests that a guaranteed minimum income could result in a revitalization of rural areas where the cost of living is much lower.

Rise of the Robots - Likewise Book Reviews

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