Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation

by Kevin Roose Narrated by Mike Chamberlain

Overview

“While we need to rewrite the rules of the twenty-first-century economy, Kevin's book is a great look at how people can do this on a personal level to always put humanity first.”-Andrew Yang

“A clear, compelling strategy for surviving the next wave of technology with our jobs-and souls-intact.”-Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit
 
The machines are here. After decades of sci-fi fantasies and hype, artificial intelligence has leapt out of research labs and Silicon Valley engineering departments and into the center of our lives. Algorithms shape everything around us, from the news we see to the products we buy and the relationships we form. And while the debate over whether or not automation will destroy jobs rages on, a much more important question is being ignored:
 
What does it mean to be a human in a world that is increasingly built by and for machines?
 
In Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation, New York Times technology columnist Kevin Roose lays out a hopeful, pragmatic vision of how people can succeed in the machine age by making themselves irreplaceably human. He shares the secrets of people and organizations that have survived technological change, and explains how we can protect our own futures, with lessons like
 
¿ Do work that is surprising, social, and scarce (the types of work machines can't do).
¿ Demote your phone.
¿ Work near other people.
¿ Treat A.I. like an army of chimpanzees.
¿ Add more friction to your life.
 
Roose rejects the conventional wisdom that in order to compete with machines, we have to become more like them-hyper-efficient, data-driven, code-writing workhorses. Instead, he says, we should let machines be machines, and focus on doing the kinds of creative, inspiring, and meaningful things only humans can do.


* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF that contains the Appendix and Reading List from the book.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Engaging . . . Roose delves into this crisis with an accessible touch that nicely explains how AI is infiltrating every part of our society and workforce.”—The Times

“Artificial intelligence—and robots themselves—can be terrifying, but Kevin Roose provides a clear, compelling strategy for surviving the next wave of technology with our jobs—and souls—intact. Whether you’re an optimist or a pessimist about the future, Futureproof is the survival guide you need.”—Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit

“Tech companies are changing the way we live, but no one is in charge of making sure that technology is improving lives. While we need to rewrite the rules of the twenty-first-century economy with solutions powerful enough to deal with these changes, Roose’s book is a great look at how people can act on a personal level to always put humanity first.”—Andrew Yang

“While I think that Skynet is still going to send the Terminator back to try to kill humanity someday, it’s worth your time and attention—if that is still a thing in the addled Internet age—to read Kevin Roose’s bracing book now. Why? Because it’s a primer on the future and how to deal with the incoming today, from AI to automation to robotics and more, by using the tools of creativity and just being human. Whether the digital threat comes from a cybernetic organism from 2459 arriving in a big ball of lightning or from that innocent-looking mobile supercomputer in your hand, I do know that you need to prepare for the next tech age. And there’s no better way to do it than to futureproof yourself by letting Roose show you how.”—Kara Swisher, host of Sway and Pivot, New York Times contributing opinion writer

Kirkus Reviews

2020-04-05
A technology journalist proposes future-oriented skills to prepare people for a new machine age.

To counter worry that artificial intelligence will make human workers obsolete, New York Times tech columnist Roose offers an upbeat, practical guide for dealing with “a world that is increasingly arranged by and for machines.” Rather than competing with machines by trying to work longer hours and beefing up technological knowledge, the author advises that humans should optimize skills that machines cannot emulate: “handling the unexpected,” for example; meeting “social and emotional needs”; and doing jobs “that involve novel circumstances, low-probability events, and rare combinations of skills.” AI is programmed to address “big data sets, large numbers of users, or huge quantities of inputs or outputs” but not to transfer knowledge from one problem to another. If people want to make themselves harder to replace, they should hone their ability to do things that require creativity, flexibility, and “human accountability.” Among the nine rules that Roose suggests for the future are a few that deliberately distance humans from technology: Wrest your attention from constantly checking your phone; curb “hustle tendencies” to overfill your schedule and drown yourself in work obligations; increase interaction with others by physical proximity, collaborative projects, and social videoconferences even if you work remotely; and speak up about “the potential stakes” of implementing AI and automation in your workplace. It’s crucial, Roose asserts, to keep humans involved in critical processes. Essential skills for the future include the ability to pay sustained attention (a skill undermined by the distractions of the internet); being able to hone emotional intelligence and empathy; media literacy; “treating other people well” and “acting ethically”; and becoming a “consequentialist,” applying critical thinking to evaluate the success or failure of AI processes and tools and “to analyze new products and imagine all the ways they could go wrong.”

Helpful advice to quell workers’ anxiety.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177624082
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	03/09/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	526,149

Read an Excerpt

Recently, I was at a party in San Francisco when a man approached me and introduced himself as the founder of a small AI start-up. As soon as the founder figured out that I was a technology writer for The New York Times, he launched into a pitch for his company, which he said was trying to revolutionize the manufacturing sector using a new AI technique called “deep reinforcement learning.” Modern factories, he explained, were struggling with what is called “production planning”—the complex art of calculating which machines should be making which things on which days. Today, he said, most factories employ humans to look at thick piles of data and customer orders to figure out whether the plastic-molding machines should be making X-Men figurines on Tuesdays and TV remotes on Thursdays, or vice versa. It’s one of those dull-but-essential tasks without which modern capitalism would probably grind to a halt, and companies spend billions of dollars a year trying to get it right. The founder explained that his company’s AI could run millions of virtual simulations for any given factory, eventually arriving at the exact sequence of processes that would allow it to produce goods most efficiently. This AI, he said, would allow factories to replace entire teams of human production planners, along with most of the outdated software those people relied on. “We call it the Boomer Remover,” he said. “The . . . Boomer . . . Remover?” I asked. “Yeah,” he said. “I mean, that’s not the official name. But our clients have way too many old, overpaid middle-managers who aren’t really necessary anymore. Our platform lets them replace those people.” The founder, who appeared to be a few drinks deep, then told a story about a client who had been looking for a way to get rid of one particular production planner for years, but could never figure out how to fully automate his job away. But mere days after installing his company’s software, the client had been able to eliminate the planner’s position with no loss of efficiency. Slightly stunned, I asked the founder if he knew what had happened to the production planner. Was he reassigned within the company? Was he just laid off unceremoniously? Did he know that his bosses had been scheming to replace him with a robot? The founder chuckled. “That’s not my problem,” he said, and headed to the bar for another drink.

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