The Golden Gate Bridge switches this week from toll booths to electronic tolling. The pre-payment system is supposed to make commuting faster, but it also puts human toll booth operators out of a job. With robots playing increasingly key roles in manufacturing, surgery, and everyday operations, where does that leave the flesh-and blood worker? Are there downsides to the rise of robots? Or does this reliance on technology simply make humans more efficient, creating new job opportunities?
Guests:
Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist at the Center for Digital Business at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and author of "Enterprise 2.0" and "Rage Against the Machine"
Martin Ford, owner of Silicon Valley software company and author of "The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future"
Catherine Mohr, director of medical research at Intuitive Surgery
Mark Micire, research scientist in the Intelligent Robots Group for both Carnegie Mellon University and the NASA Ames Research Center