Now that we have sorted out how we want the economy to work in the future, let's discuss what we can do to help bring about those changes. Chapter Index 00:00 | Intro 00:25 | Chapter Begins 01:58 | 1.1 Support Open Source Projects 14:34 | 1.2 Vote With Your Wallet (Not What You Think) 16:30 | 1.3 Work Less, Be Self-Employed 23:36 | 1.4 Don’t Be A D…

Now that we have thoroughly explored how the economy is going to be changing in the near future, let's discuss what you can do today to help yourself transition into this brave new world. Chapter Index 00:00 | Intro 00:25 | Chapter Begins 01:12 | 1.1 Need Less, Live More 08:56 | 1.2 Educate yourself 32:35 | 1.3 Educate Others 33:28 | 1.4 Grow Your …

If our life's purpose is not the work we do, then what is it? Chapter Index 00:00 | Intro 00:25 | Chapter Begins 08:18 | Outro References The Essential 20: Twenty Components of an Excellent Health Care Team, Dianne Dukette and David Cornish, 2009. RoseDog Books. pp. 72-73. The New York Magazine Environmental Teach-In, Elizabeth Barlow, 30 March 197…

If acquiring more and more money won't make people happier, and they cannot compete with automation in the workplace, can we simply provide people with basic amenities to make them happy? It is a little more complicated than that. Chapter Index 00:00 | Intro 00:25 | Chapter begins 10:13 | 1.1 Flow 15:41 | Outro Figures Figure 1.1: Life evaluation a…

One of the reasons that pursuing the hedonic treadmill is that our brains are wired to create happiness for us, regardless of the events around us. Chapter Index 00:00 | Intro 00:25 | Chapter begins 05:04 | 1.1 Experience Simulations 13:56 | Outro References Adapted from Spike Milligan’s Money can’t buy you happiness but it does bring you a more pl…

There is a bit more nuance to the question of whether income can affect your happiness. It comes down to the difference between emotional well-being and life satisfaction. Chapter Index 00:00 | Intro 00:25 | Chapter begins 08:26 | Outro Figures Figure 1.1: Subjective well-being (SWB), per capita gross domestic product (GDP), and different types of …

Does making more money make us happier? Turns out that once we have met a certain threshold of our needs, making more money does not increase happiness. Chapter Index 00:00 | Intro 00:25 | Chapter Begins 14:57 | Outro Figures Figure 1.1: Google Insights comparison of the search terms ‘economy’, ‘happiness’ and ‘GDP’ between 2008 and 2011.Figure 1.2…

A short parable to illustrate that sometimes things just are what they are. Chapter Index 00:00 | Intro 00:25 | Chapter Begins 04:31 | Outro References Adapted from an anonymous comment on Slashdot. http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=180945&cid=14970571 Attributions Chapter Text and comment section: Chapter 12: The Scorpion and the Frog | Robots W…

In most of the industrialized world, the "pursuit of happiness" is considered to be an inalienable right. But our current economic system is not set up to allow everyone the opportunity to pursue happiness. Chapter Index 00:00 | Intro 00:25 | Chapter Begins 12:46 | Outro References A Treatise of the Laws of Nature, Richard Cumberland, 2005. Indiana…

Society has ingrained in us that the most important aspect of our identities is our job. Chapter Index 00:00 | Intro 00:25 | Chapter Begins 04:32 | 1.1 Work Ethic, Work Utility 13:00 | Outro References Cluster munitions are prohibited for those nations that ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions, adopted in Dublin, Ireland in May 2008. The Conv…

Many argue that as new technologies eliminate jobs, they create new jobs. This chapter analyzes why that is an unlikely outcome with automation this widespread. Chapter Index 00:00 | Intro 00:25 | Chapter Begins 23:19 | Outro Figures Figure 1.1: Americans not in the labour force, by age, as of 2011. Image courtesy of CNN, data comes from the US Bur…

Technologies that are quite useful and safe do not always achieve widespread social acceptance. In this chapter we explore why that is. Chapter Index 00:00 | Intro 00:25 | Chapter Begins 11:37 | Outro References INTERNET USAGE STATISTICS. The Internet Big Picture. World Internet Users and Population Stats. http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.ht…

The signs of automation taking over our economy are already showing themselves in our world. Chapter Index 00:00:00 | Intro 00:00:25 | Chapter Begins 00:01:43 | 1.1 Automated Shopping 00:11:57 | 1.2 Automated Manufacturing 00:21:12 | 1.3 3d Printing 00:28:54 | 1.4 Automated Construction 00:32:21 | 1.5 Automated Journalism 00:36:44 | 1.6 AI Assistan…

Artificial intelligence is already stealing many of our jobs, but not the ones you might think of. Chapter Index 00:00 | Intro 00:25 | Chapter Begins 05:47 | 1.1 Smarter, Better, Faster, Stronger 08:05 | 1.2 It’s All About the Algorithms 12:48 | Outro Figures Figure 1.1: Front page of Google Images. You can see the camera icon on the right of the b…

What does it mean to compare machine intelligence to human intelligence, and does it even matter when it comes to the workplace? Chapter Index 00:00 | Intro 00:25 | Chapter Begins 06:26 | Outro References The Chinese room is a thought experiment presented by John Searle. It supposes that there is a program that gives a computer the ability to carry…

Now that we understand the nature of exponential growth, we can look at how it applies to the advancement of information technology. Chapter Index 00:00 | Intro 00:25 | Chapter Begins 08:50 | Outro Figures Figure 1.1: The difference between a Linear and an Exponential curve. Courtesy of Ray Kurzweil.Figure 1.2: The Exponential Growth of computing p…

Most people do not fully grasp the implications of exponential growth. Federico presents us with some examples to help illustrate it. Chapter Index 00:00 | Intro 00:25 | Chapter Begins 05:58 | 1.1 Explosive Power 12:33 | Outro Figures Figure 1.1: Top left, it begins with 1 grain. It goes on to the right with 2, 4, 8, 16… then numbers grow too big, …

The idea that machines steal jobs is not a new one. The Luddite movement goes back to 19th century England; is there weight to their argument, or is it all just a fallacy? Chapter Index 00:00 | Intro 00:25 | Chapter Begins 09:07 | Outro References The Skilled Labourer 1760-1832, Hammond, J.L.; Hammond, Barbara, 1919. London: Longmans, Green and co.…

Federico takes us through unemployment trends leading up to 2012. Chapter Index 00:00 | Intro 00:25 | Chapter Begins 11:00 | Outro Figures Figure 1.1: Average Household IncomeFigure 1.2: Change in share of income 1979-2007, calculated after taxes.Figure 1.3: Building a Better America – One Wealth Quintile at a Time, Michael I. Norton, Dan Ariely. J…

You are about to become obsolete. You think you are special, unique, and that whatever it is that you are doing is impossible to replace. You are wrong. As we speak, millions of algorithms created by computer scientists are frantically running on servers all over the world, with one sole purpose: do whatever humans can do, but better. Chapter Index…

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