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Annotated Bibliography

Mustafa Hafeez Mir

Professor Alexandra Soya

Composition and Rhetoric 1101

26 March 2017

How automation is changing the world?

Akst, Daniel. "Automation Anxiety. (Cover Story)." Wilson Quarterly,

vol. 37, no. 3, Summer 2013, pp. 66-78.

In this article, Akst describes the anxiety many people feel on the

effects of automation by mentioning examples from history and present day

alike. The article traces many plausible ideas as well as timely warnings

made by economists and sociologists on the effect of automation and either

validates or negates these theories by providing commendable statistical

data. Moreover, the author goes on to briefly prepare readers on how the

world would change in the coming century by mentioning a former Stanford

professors point of view from 2011. The article summarizes socioeconomic

prospects that automation promises to bring. The writing touches many

aspects of the role which technology may play a part in for the future. The

article contains many examples foreseeing the arrival of automation on the

world. It can act as a strong platform for my research. I find most of it in line

with the other sources I used.

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Brynjolfsson, Erik, Andrew McAfee, and Michael Spence. "New World

Order." Foreign Affairs, vol. 93, no. 4, Summer 2014, pp. 44-53.

This article is based on an extensive study of the world economy

subjected to the rising inclination towards technology and automation. The

authors describe the shares of labor and capital in the economy, both before

and after the advent of the machines in the working class. Statistical data is

provided to corroborate the research. One part of the article deals with the

loss of labor share in economy, describing how and why it has dropped. The

other part shows that people in the capital sector may or may not benefit

from technology. The authors move on to describe automations role in the

workplace as a form of digital capital. The last two sections of the article

show how technology has made design and innovation a merchandize in the

global economy. This article is mostly objective and very relevant to my

research. It also supports some of the claims from my other sources.

Hayes, Brian. "Automation on the Job: Computers were Supposed to be

Labor-Saving Devices. How come were still working so hard?" American

Scientist, vol. 97, Fall 2009, pp. 10-14.

The article focuses on technology development and how it has affected

work and social life. The first part of the article compares thoughts of

numerous economists of the past on how technology will squeeze into our

daily lifestyle. The author then describes the spot-on predictions made by

one consultant, John Diebold, who was also the person who came up with the
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name automation. Later in the article, computers in the workplace are

given a lot of importance; however, there is one assumption which the

author makes which is that computers are available to the majority of

population and they know how to use it. Lastly, the article explains how

people today still have so much work despite the advances in technology.

Overall, this article supports the rest of my sources. The only contrast is that

the author says that its not right to believe that people with new innovative

ideas will be treated differently from the mass public in the future.

Mather, Yassamine. "Automation in the Era of Economic

Crises." Critique, vol. 44, no. 1-2, Summer 2016, pp. 67-84.

Mather in her article Automation in the era of Economics Crises

describes a vast range of cyber automation humans have achieved. She

splits the article into sections, each extensively focused over the interaction

of humans with computer and cyberspace. The discussion in these sections

affect us and that is mostly why I chose this source. You can tell after going

through the text that extensive learning needs to be made in automation and

new technology and this learning must not stop when innovations are made

because all of it affects us. This article serves as a unique perspective

towards rising automation because it explains technology. I think it is in

contradiction with most of the other sources as it discusses only the nature

of the effects of automation on the world rather than predicting how the

world will be like or how we should react.

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Najafbagy, Reza. "Banking Automation in Iran, its Social and Banking

Effects. Journal of Performance Management, vol. 23, no. 1, 2010, pp. 11-

22.

The author does an extensive study on the Iranian banking system and

how the rise of automation has struggled in bringing a change in this field. To

do this, the author discusses the various methods of money exchange that

have been introduced and are becoming commonplace. The article shows

that because of lower literacy rate of the average Iranian man, the full

potential of these new technological methods remains untapped. The article

is a good example of research done in a specific direction. The only weak

point is that the author blames the owners of state-banks for not paying

attention to the quality of service their banks are providing. This, though

valid, is an entirely separate argument from the effects of automation.

Najafbagy also shows that for much part of the lesser developed countries,

educating the general public is imperative for advancing any kind of

technology in any aspect of life, be it work or social. The article is in

agreement with the rest of the sources Im using.

Phillips, Fred Y., and Deog-Seong Oh. "Technology Assessment and the

Social and Human Impact of Innovation." Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,

vol. 72, no. 6, 2016, pp. 402-411.

This article discusses a unique phenomenon, Technology Assessment,

which is relatively new considering it was first discovered in the 1970s. The
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article mentions the recent neglection by the US Government against

Technology Assessment and provides some of its consequences. It then

discusses how the rest of the world views technology assessment. One of the

many reasons why Technology Assessment is important today is that it does

not overlook the social impacts of a companys product. The article finally

discusses the present challenges for Technology Assessment and how it can

be implemented in most if not all of products. This article, unlike the norm,

has a lot of explanation on managing the innovations of today. It is

particularly useful in that sense. However, its weakness is that it doesnt

mention any automated job. But, it is in line with the rest of my sources as

the phenomenon of Technology Assessment itself is an indirect effect (or job)

caused by mass automation in companies and their products today and for

the future.

Stevens, Yvonne A. "The Future: Innovation and Jobs." Jurimetrics, vol.

56, no. 4, Summer 2016, pp. 367-385.

The article focuses on effects of automation in the workplace. It is

divided in three parts. The first part provides statistical data on the rising and

declining number of various jobs in the United States. The second part is

based mainly on a proposal of reducing or stopping innovation in technology

for the future. Here key emphasis is given to certain benefits from

stopping/lowering change in technology but at the same time the article

points out many examples which argue that automation opens up jobs too.

The last part of the article provides an approach to deal with the automation
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anxiety. Stevens describes how this proposal fits in to the present situation

and also explains why a change is necessary. This article is important

because it is successful in showing the complete picture that automation has

played and also gives a sort of heads up for the youth of today in terms of

employment. It agrees with most the sources Im using and even refers to

one of them.