The Age of Automation

Automation now supplants economic activity more than it supports it. Furthermore this process is fueled by enormous economic forces which intensifies dependence on automation and spawns other sociological consequences. Of these consequences fraud generates the highest immediate losses amounting to $300 billion annually. In the long run however the greatest economic cost will occur through loss of jobs and a lowering of net skills for most of the balance. Other consequences include pervasive invasion of privacy and overdependence on technology at the expense of developing critical reasoning judgement and a personal sense of responsibility. Fortunately many of these consequences could be ameliorated by automated countermeasures that offset the excesses. Unfortunately it usually takes a crisis to institute fundamental reform though the looming economic meltdown stemming from the mounting federal debt offers just such an opportunity.