Astral Codex Ten Podcast

Technological Unemployment Much More Than You Wanted to Know


Listen Later

[I am not an economist or an expert on this topic. This is my attempt to figure out what economists and experts think so I can understand the issue, and I'm writing it down to speed your going through the same process. If you have more direct access to economists and experts, feel free to ignore this]

Technological unemployment is a hard topic because there are such good arguments on both sides.

The argument against: we've had increasing technology for centuries now, people have been predicting that technology will put them out of work since the Luddites, and it's never come true. Instead, one of two things have happened. Either machines have augmented human workers, allowing them to produce more goods at lower prices, and so expanded industries so dramatically that overall they employ more people. Or displaced workers from one industry have gone into another – stable boys becoming car mechanics, or the like. There are a bunch of well-known theoretical mechanisms that compensate for technological displacement – see Vivarelli for a review. David Autor gives a vivid example:

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Astral Codex Ten PodcastBy Jeremiah

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

129 ratings


More shows like Astral Codex Ten Podcast

View all
Freakonomics Radio by Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Freakonomics Radio

32,246 Listeners

The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast by Mark Linsenmayer, Wes Alwan, Seth Paskin, Dylan Casey

The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

2,118 Listeners

Very Bad Wizards by Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro

Very Bad Wizards

2,680 Listeners

Making Sense with Sam Harris by Sam Harris

Making Sense with Sam Harris

26,380 Listeners

EconTalk by Russ Roberts

EconTalk

4,270 Listeners

Conversations with Tyler by Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Conversations with Tyler

2,461 Listeners

The Glenn Show by Glenn Loury

The Glenn Show

2,267 Listeners

The Good Fight by Yascha Mounk

The Good Fight

907 Listeners

ChinaTalk by Jordan Schneider

ChinaTalk

291 Listeners

Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas by Sean Carroll

Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

4,167 Listeners

Your Undivided Attention by The Center for Humane Technology, Tristan Harris, Aza Raskin

Your Undivided Attention

1,635 Listeners

Last Week in AI by Skynet Today

Last Week in AI

313 Listeners

Blocked and Reported by Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal

Blocked and Reported

3,833 Listeners

Dwarkesh Podcast by Dwarkesh Patel

Dwarkesh Podcast

551 Listeners

The AI Daily Brief: Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis by Nathaniel Whittemore

The AI Daily Brief: Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

688 Listeners