Is a Robot Waiting for your Job?

When two researchers at MIT started a book to be called The Digital Frontier, they were optimistic that technological innovation would increase productivity, and that would mean new jobs. Historically speaking, that has been the case. But their inquiries led in a very different direction. In the current recession it's the other way around: more productivity but fewer jobs. "Technological unemployment" has gone from the factory floor to America's service economy, once called "the last repository" of jobs. This time, the old jobs aren't being replaced by new ones.  From banks to gas stations to grocery stores, information technology is taking a heavy toll. Google has shown that a computer can drive a car.  What can we do to protect our species from losing the race with machines?