Doesn't Want to Accidentally Make So It's Creating an Off Switch

RT @businessinsider: Photos of Amazon's invitation-only conference, where Jeff Bezos showed up in a robotic suit ht…

RT @mims: Killer robots are coming, and it's the likes of Google and Amazon making them possible--not the military

The United States and other developed countries are in the midst of a digital revolution that may be even more profound than the industrial revolutions of the past. Advances in robotics, cognitive computing and other digital technologies promise untold benefits in a world of leisure hard to imagine. But there is also a dark side to this technological change. It could lead to joblessness for most and extreme inequality, threatening economic health and political stability. Tension over rising inequality and a lack of good-paying middle class jobs is growing in Silicon Valley and nearby San Francisco, the epicentre of computerisation and the information economy. In San Francisco, buses for Google, Facebook and other companies ferry high-paid tech workers to their jobs in Silicon Valley. This allows tens of thousands to live in the city, fuelling popular anger over gentrification and high housing prices that are pushing longtime residents out.

Video: Turking for a Living

The human-fueled automations I saw at Google are also largely out of sight in current international debates about the relationship between digital technology and the future of work. Will technology produce new jobs, new industries, and new forms of comparative advantage? Or will technology take away jobs and concentrate wealth among those who own the machines?

« Je me tiens aux côtés des Français contre la terreur, et je veux faire passer un message, donc je m’abonne. Vous devriez faire la même chose, a tweeté Arnold Schwar­ze­neg­ger. #JeSuisC­har­lie » L’ac­teur améri­cain a ajouté à son message un lien vers Amazon, sur lequel ses conci­toyens pour­ront s’abon­ner au jour­nal depuis les Etats-Unis.

Amazon’s frightening CIA partnership:Capitalism, corporations and our massive new surveillance state

Enter Skynet. Along with his tech-savvy partner on the project, the electronics engineer Grant Bajema, Burchat has designed a barcoded and GPS-tagged net that he believes could be mounted on the homes, balconies and backyards of the near future. The opulent gulf state wants to lead what it predicts will be a $10bn industry by 2025, and has offered a US$1m prize to the most promising concept.

The sobering story of Janet Vertesi's attempts to conceal her pregnancy from the forces of online marketers shows just how Kafkaesque the internet has become..