I will always remember my first project at my first job out of school. The project manager sat down the team to explain the goals of the project. My company made digital asset management software, and it had sold a license to a major client.
It was pitched to the team like this: "The client has already announced to shareholders that this project is going to lay off 20 people, so we need to get it done by such-and-such date."
I felt really awesome about those poor smucks who got unemployed partially due to my work. As programmers at our best can create whole new industries, but most of what we do is automate repetitive tasks.
That's good for productivity, but might not be an unvarnished good for society if the gains are not distributed in a fair manner.
Paul Krugman has written a lot lately about "capital-biased technological progress" and potential remedies.
It was pitched to the team like this: "The client has already announced to shareholders that this project is going to lay off 20 people, so we need to get it done by such-and-such date."
I felt really awesome about those poor smucks who got unemployed partially due to my work. As programmers at our best can create whole new industries, but most of what we do is automate repetitive tasks.
That's good for productivity, but might not be an unvarnished good for society if the gains are not distributed in a fair manner.
Paul Krugman has written a lot lately about "capital-biased technological progress" and potential remedies.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/08/rise-of-the-robo...
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/26/capital-biased-t...
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/28/policy-implicati...