Why haven't machines taken all our jobs yet?

A surprising, hopeful answer. Open in your browser

This week on TED.com December 26, 2016

Talk of the week David Autor: Why are there still so many jobs? 18:37 minutes · Filmed Sep 2016 · Posted Dec 2016 · TEDxCambridge Here's a paradox you don't hear about: Though machines and computers are constantly being created to do human jobs, the proportion of adults in the US with a job has consistently gone up for the past 125 years. Which begs the question: Why hasn't human labor become redundant and our skills obsolete? In this talk about the future of work, economist David Autor takes on the question of why there are still so many jobs -- and comes up with a surprising, hopeful answer. Watch now »

Playlist of the week Best science and tech of 2016 Get ready to have your mind blown ... Watch » 13 TED Talks • Total run time 2:43:38

This week's new TED Talks With words like shards of glass, Chinaka Hodge cuts open 2016 and lets 12 months of violence, grief, fear, shame, courage and hope spill out in this original poem about a year none of us will soon forget. Watch » Every minute, 400 pounds of hydrogen and almost 7 pounds of helium escape from Earth's atmosphere into outer space. Astrophysicist Anjali Tripathi studies the phenomenon of atmospheric escape, and in this fascinating and accessible talk, she considers how this process might one day (a few billion years from now) turn our blue planet red. Watch » At a moment when the world seems to be spinning out of control, religion might feel irrelevant -- or like part of the problem. But Rabbi Sharon Brous believes we can reinvent religion to meet the needs of modern life. In this impassioned talk, Brous shares four principles of a revitalized religious practice and offers faith of all kinds as a hopeful counter-narrative to the numbing realities of violence, extremism and pessimism. Watch » James Beacham looks for answers to the most important open questions of physics using the biggest science experiment ever mounted, CERN's Large Hadron Collider. In this fun and accessible talk about how science happens, Beacham takes us on a journey through extra-spatial dimensions in search of undiscovered fundamental particles (and an explanation for the mysteries of gravity) and details the drive to keep exploring. Watch »

Read more on ideas.ted.com Get ready for 2017: The ideas we'll be talking about in the upcoming year » TED's curators share the trends and projects they're watching Maps: These 7 new maps offer a fresh perspective on our world » And a new way of seeing ourselves ...  Culture: The 4 secrets to a really restorative holiday break » Research-backed advice on how to get the most from your time off

Quote of the Week “ It's foolish to say there's nothing to worry about. Clearly we can get this wrong. But it's equally foolish to say that our fates are sealed. That's not decided by the machines. It's not even decided by the market. It's decided by us." David Autor Why are there still so many jobs?

Curator's picks: The Must-watch TED Talks for 2016 We asked TED's head curator, Chris Anderson, to choose the 10 must-watch talks from this year -- the unmissable moments, from science to self, with the inspiration you need to close this year and look boldly ahead.  To watch all 10 of the full talks, just cue up this playlist: go.ted.com/2016 Watch on iTunes Listen to audio on iTunes Or watch this 3-minute supercut:

 

You are receiving this email because you've subscribed to our mailing list. We also send out daily emails, if you can't get enough of us. We love you too. Copyright © 2016 TED, All rights reserved. You're receiving the TED Talks weekly newsletter because you subscribed to it on TED.com. (Was this forwarded by a friend? You can sign up here: http://www.ted.com/newsletter ) Our mailing address is: TED 330 Hudson Street 11th Floor New York, NY 10013 Add us to your address book unsubscribe from this list   update subscription preferences   view email in browser