IN-PERSON: Author panel discussion for "The Work of the Future"

Join authors David H. Autor, David A. Mindell, and Elisabeth B. Reynolds as they discuss their fascinating and well researched new book, The Work of the Future: Building Better Jobs in an Age of Intelligent Machines. Their book examines why the United States lags behind other industrialized countries in sharing the benefits of innovation with workers and how we can remedy the problem.

It is a free in-person event however we ask that you RSVP with the link below. You can buy a copy of the book along with your RSVP. 

If you don't want to attend the event but would still like to buy a copy of the book, you can do so by scrolling down and adding the book to your shopping cart. Just remember that buying the book alone is not the same an RSVP ticket. 

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ABOUT THE BOOK

The United States has too many low-quality, low-wage jobs. Every country has its share, but those in the United States are especially poorly paid and often without benefits. Meanwhile, overall productivity increases steadily and new technology has transformed large parts of the economy, enhancing the skills and paychecks of higher paid knowledge workers. What’s wrong with this picture? Why have so many workers benefited so little from decades of growth? The Work of the Future shows that technology is neither the problem nor the solution. We can build better jobs if we create institutions that leverage technological innovation and also support workers though long cycles of technological transformation.

Building on findings from the multiyear MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, the book argues that we must foster institutional innovations that complement technological change. Skills programs that emphasize work-based and hybrid learning (in person and online), for example, empower workers to become and remain productive in a continuously evolving workplace. Industries fueled by new technology that augments workers can supply good jobs, and federal investment in R&D can help make these industries worker-friendly. We must act to ensure that the labor market of the future offers benefits, opportunity, and a measure of economic security to all.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

David Autor is Ford Professor of Economics and Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow. His scholarship explores the labor-market impacts of technological change and globalization on job polarization, skill demands, earnings levels and inequality, and electoral outcomes. In a 2019 article, the Economist magazine labeled him as “The academic voice of the American worker.” Later that same year, and with (at least) equal justification, he was christened “Twerpy MIT Economist” by John Oliver of Last Week Tonight in a segment on automation and employment.

David A. Mindell is Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing at MIT, and founder and CEO of Humatics Corporation. His research focuses on human and machine collaboration, navigation and autonomy for transportation and mobility as well as the  history of manufacturing, aviation and spaceflight. He is the author of six books including Our Robots, Ourselves: Robotics and the Myths of Autonomy (2015) and Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in the First Six Lunar Landings (2008).

Elisabeth B. Reynolds is a Lecturer in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning and until fall of 2022 was Special Assistant to the President for Manufacturing and Economic Development at the National Economic Council. Before her time in the White House, she was Executive Director of MIT’s Industrial Performance Center and the Task Force on the Work of the Future.