Today’s podcast reviews Tyler Cowen’s new book Average is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation. The book’s thesis is that machine intelligence and other factors are driving a trend toward much greater inequality in America. We discuss Tyler’s conservative political persuasion and the relative plausibility of his near future vision. Will we build a favela in Texas? How much can man-machine freestyle chess competitions teach us about the future of the job market? Will free wifi really be enough to keep the bottom 85% from revolting?
Relevant Links
- Marginal Revolution
- Average is Over on Amazon
- IEEE Spectrum Article about autopilot
- Freestyle Chess information
- Tyler Cowen’s previous book, The Great Stagnation