Introduction: An overview of emerging technology and employment in the early twenty-first century

Abstract

Many economists and experts have begun to argue that the increasing automation of jobs may finally create a decline in available jobs for humans. Given this pessimism, there is a need to look more closely at the questions concerning not only whether technological employment will happen, but also at some specific scenarios for it, whether we might avoid it, and some options we may have to do so. This chapter introduces these issues. It also points toward and summarizes arguments that are developed in the other chapters of the book by experts from the fields of economics, philosophy, and law who are involved in the study of technological unemployment.