Environmental Control Is Applied to Computerization Problems

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In a paper, he lays out two strategies for dealing with non-routine problems. One of those strategies is what I call environmental control. Environmental control means simplifying the environment so that it's far less flexible than a human being can manage in that environment. He says an area the size of Ohio could be covered by impermeable services such as roads.

David Autor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the future of work and the role that automation and smart machines might play in the workforce. Autor stresses the importance of Michael Polanyi's insight that many of the things we know and understand cannot be easily written down or communicated. Those kinds of tacit knowledge will be difficult for smart machines to access and use. In addition, Autor argues that fundamentally, the gains from machine productivity will accrue to humans. The conversation closes with a discussion of the distributional implications of a world with a vastly larger role for smart machines.