788 - Robots Taking Over: What Will Humans Do?

 In this program, Hazel Henderson and NASA Chief Scientist Dennis Bushnell explore the advance of automation as ever more sectors of industrial societies are digitized: from manufacturing to retailing, accounting, healthcare, education, legal services and even finance. Driverless vehicles will end jobs in trucking, taxis, which offer millions of entry-level opportunities. Fly-by-wire airplanes have caused the deskilling of pilots, some of whom have been confused when computerized navigation systems have failed – causing crashes. Can computerized systems be programmed with human values: empathy, compassion and ethics? Can a driverless car pass an ethical test of judgment: swerving to avoid hitting a group of people at the expense of colliding with a single person? Bushnell points out how much more efficient computers are at many tasks than humans. Henderson looks at the macro-effects: how can economies maintain aggregate demand to buy all the new productivity’s goods and services? How can people obtain purchasing power if not from jobs? They discuss alternatives emerging: worker-owned companies, cooperative enterprises and guaranteed basic incomes now enacted in Brazil, Mexico and proposed in Switzerland, Europe and the USA.