The Globotics Upheaval

Richard Baldwin, one of the world's leading globalization experts, argues that the inhuman speed of this combination of globalization and robotics - "globotics" - threatens to overwhelm our capacity to adapt. Globotics will disrupt the lives of millions of white-collar workers much faster than automation, industrialization, and globalization disrupted the lives of factory workers in previous centuries. The result will be a backlash. Professional, white-collar, and service workers will agitate for a slowing of the unprecedented pace of disruption, as factory workers have done in years past.

Baldwin argues that the globotics upheaval will be countered in the short run by "shelter-ism" - government policies that shelter some service jobs from tele-migrants and thinking computers. In the long run, people will work in more human jobs - activities that require real people to use the uniquely human ability of independent thought - and this will strengthen bonds in local communities. Offering effective strategies such as focusing on the social value of work, The Globotics Upheaval will help employers and institutions prepare for the oncoming wave of an advanced robotic workforce.