WTF? What's the future and why it's up to us

Robots are going to take our jobs, they say. Tim O'Reilly says, "Only if that's what we ask them to do!" Tim has had his fill of technological determinism. He explains why technology is the solution to human problems and why we won't run out of work till we run out of problems.

Robots are going to take our jobs, they say. I say, “Only if that’s what we ask them to do!” I’ve had my fill of technological determinism. Technology is the solution to human problems, and we won’t run out of work till we run out of problems. Entrepreneurs need to set their sights on how we can use big data, sensors, and AI to create amazing human experiences and the economy of the future, making us all richer in the same way the tools of the first industrial revolution did. Yes, technology can eliminate labor and make things cheaper, but at its best, we use it to do things that were previously unimaginable. What is our poverty of imagination? What are the entrepreneurial leaps that will allow us to use the technology of today to build a better future, not just a more efficient one? Tim’s new book, WTF? What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us, will be published by Harper Business on October 10, 2017. Preorder now