, May 16, 2016
Daily Bafflements
Who will watch over the self-driving cars?
Being "alive and healthy" is good for your nation's GDP. / Rodrigo Senna
• Anxiety is on the worldwide march and, according to the Guardian, “Obvious social, cultural and economic factors include the financial crisis of 2008 (. . .) and the subsequent austerity, overwork, unemployment and unaffordable housing.” Gary Greenberg wrote about the callow frame WHO researchers put around this phenomenon on the Baffler blog.
• “When politicians pledge to protect manufacturing jobs, they really mean a certain kind of job: well-paid, long-lasting, with opportunities for advancement. Those aren’t qualities associated with working on a factory floor; they’re qualities associated with being a member of a union.”
• Are you a “vehicle-safety specialist,” a.k.a. a human person? Google’s looking for the likes of you to supervise its notorious self-driving cars.
• “No human investment manager will be able to beat the computer”: robots are taking billionaires’ jobs.