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Manna: Two Visions of Humanity's Future by [Marshall Brain]

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Marshall Brain

Manna: Two Visions of Humanity's Future Kindle Edition

by Marshall Brain (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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Robots will soon begin taking human jobs in places like retail stores, fast food restaurants, construction sites and transportation. The key technology that will fuel the transition is inexpensive computer vision systems, and the number of human jobs at risk numbers in the tens of millions. More than half of the jobs in the United States could be eliminated.

With half of the jobs eliminated by robots, what happens to all the people who are out of work? Marshall Brain's book Manna explores the possibilities and shows two contrasting outcomes, one filled with great hope and the other quite uncomfortable.

Join Marshall Brain, founder of HowStuffWorks.com, for a skillful step-by-step walk through the robotic transition, the collapse of the human job market that results and an surprising look at humanity's future in a post-robotic world.

Then consider our options. Which vision of the future will society choose to follow?

About the Author

Marshall Brain is best known as the founder of HowStuffWorks.com. Marshall started the site as a hobby in 1998 and it was purchased for $250 million by Discovery Communications in 2007.

As a well-known public speaker, Marshall frequently appears on radio and TV programs nationwide. He has appeared on everything from The Oprah Winfrey Show to CNN. He is the host of National Geographic's "Factory Floor With Marshall Brain".

Marshall has written more than a dozen books and a number of widely known publications.

Today Marshall resides in Cary, NC with his wife and four children.

You can learn more about Marshall Brain at http://MarshallBrain.com

Print length

79 pages
Language

English
Publication date

March 5, 2012
File size

233 KB
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Product details

ASIN : B007HQH67U
Publisher : BYG Publishing, Inc.; 1st edition (March 5, 2012)
Publication date : March 5, 2012
Language : English
File size : 233 KB
Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 79 pages
Lending : Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #82,045 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #4 in Robotic Engineering
- #8 in Robotics & Automation (Kindle Store)
- #29 in Robotics (Books)

Customer Reviews:
282 ratings

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5 star		62%
4 star		22%
3 star		10%
2 star		4%
1 star		2%

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Nick

two pictures

Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2019

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**spoiler alert** Who should benefit from the coming power of AI? The author paints two pictures: the first a nightmare scenario where the vast majority of citizens are, as soon as their inevitable obsolescence by the machines, warehoused and forgotten, leaving the elite few ownership class to reap the rewards of the automation while the rest wallow in tedium and obscurity, the second a seemingly utopian alternative where the machines augment people's abilities instead of replace them, where the collective benefits of the machines are shared. What I found most interesting was that in both scenarios the author presented a seemingly inevitability of loss of personal liberties. While in scenario 2 the citizens lived in luxury, in the process they also gave up a not small part of their humanity or even free will (in the process taking a deep turn into science fiction territory), leaving a reader to question which would be more insidious: living in a box with your actions monitored and controlled externally, or living with augmentations but at a price of your humanity. I think it would be easy to dismiss this parable as anti-capitalist, but I speculate that the author is more interested in directions of innovation instead of governance or economy - demonstrating the outcomes when the machines are designed to either usurp or augment.

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Kimberlie L.

Fascinating hopeless perfection.

Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2020

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Sci-fi, speculative fiction, future tech, Black Mirror-ish ... if you like any of this you will like this short story, it's one of the best I've ever read. Humans are redundant in the work force and only the rich get any payoff.

"Depending on how you want to think about it, it was funny or inevitable or symbolic that the robotic takeover did not start at MIT, NASA, Microsoft or Ford. It started at a Burger-G restaurant in Cary, NC on May 17. It seemed like such a simple thing at the time, but May 17 marked a pivotal moment in human history."

If all stories were as good as this one, the only thing I would ever get done is books. I read a lot of books ... a lot. I've been an avid reader for 38 years now, at least. Never before have I read a book that I wanted to jump into and live in more than this one, with the hope that I got lucky. Unless you are lucky or rich, you are nothing and you have nothing for the rest of your existence. You end up in a miserable, monotonous, wasted life.

If, however, you are rich or lucky you get to experience the most perfect utopia imaginable. Perfect for every single human on the planet. I never thought that one could be described so achingly perfect, especially in a short story, but it just was. There is not one thing more a human could ask for.

It was so good that after I finished it the first time I immediately started reading it again.

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Fireblood

Interesting ideas, but a poor delivery over the second section and fairly dubious claims.

Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2020

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Marshall Brain many ideas in this short book that I've long found fascinating, such as class oppression, technological unemployment, transhumanism and utopianism. The first section, which portrays a scenario where increasing numbers of workers lose their jobs due to technological innovations making them obsolete. So that was compelling and interesting. It was in the second part though I felt the narrative fell short. Essentially, it became a long series of lectures about the Australia Project, a utopian alternative which is contrasted with the dystopia the US becomes. Although that idea was also interesting, it didn't across as well. Of course, this has long been known-hell can be described more than heaven, as it's been said. I think that more could have been done with that part however.

As to his views themselves, I am skeptical. Technological unemployment may well be a problem, I'm just not sure even the most indifferent capitalist ruling class would go this far. Robots could make things solely for them, true, but it is unclear this would be more profitable than still having people buy them and design things. Further, the story assumes a rebellion by the unemployed could simply be put down so easily. I don't know if that is true.
The rich might well find it good to provide something like a basic income for people, to stave this off, rather than simply put them in what's essentially prison as the book describes. This is all less than certain to occur as the author describes. I am especially skeptical of his stark ending dichotomy, claiming the only choices will be the dystopia described or his utopia. Rarely in my experience do things really become that simple.

The utopia too has difficulties. While it may be the case something like this could be done, the track record for utopian projects isn't great, to put things mildly. It's true none has ever been like he's described, but that's part of the problem. We simply don't know how this would turn out in reality. Maybe it would be like he describes, but I'm unconvinced. Call me a cynic, but our capacity for messing things up and squabbling seems fairly unlimited. Even as he describes, too, many people will be less than happy. Half the population living their lives in virtual reality isn't what many people will view as utopian-rather the opposite, even when voluntary. I fear it might grow into more than half, perhaps nearly all, if VR becomes pleasing enough. This is a scenario I've even thought about for a story-The Matrix, but as something the population willingly embrace. In such a case, might not an AI overseeing this eventually conclude we're not worth keeping alive?

In conclusion, while there's much to think about here, I don't agree entirely with the author's case. Further, it may suffice to add that I'm far less sanguine about transhumanism than Brain is. A lot of technology might not even be possibly-we don't know that yet either-nor desirable if so.

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Jimi Reed

A fresh look at a possible future

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 12, 2020

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I’ve read other books before that looked at how the planet could end up, but the options given in this book are, whilst deliberately extremes, thought provoking.
The last couple of sentences sum the point up beautifully (but you need to read the rest first to understand them).
Not a long book, so highly recommended.

MdR

An intriguing and satisfying read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 19, 2019

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Thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking. The plot accelerates, and keeps you hanging on.

Should capitalism now evolve? Is a Utopian society possible? Could UBI work? Can we maintain control of AI systems? Should we merge our bodies with technology? If you are interested in these questions, you'll love Manna.

I suppose that if we want our world to become a better place, perhaps we should all be very interested in these things.

Ms. J. Jones

Hell more convincing than heaven?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 28, 2012

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Two visions of the future, two different ways to use computer technology. I was deeply impressed by the first half - the all-too-believable analysis of the potential danger of computerised management. The second, utopian, half also began well with the promise of freedom to create and innovate using shareware and open source programming. Unfortunately the extremes of fantasy and hedonism towards the end un-mined my respect for the clear eyed rationality of the earlier sections. Not a long book. Certainly worth reading.

ben

5 stars for the dystopian half, 3 stars for the utopian

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 30, 2015

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The first half of the book was scarily plausible and absolutely gripping, precisely because of how realistic it felt. Look at people who work in Amazon warehouses and are told precisely where to walk to for proof of that! However the utopian half of the book felt too fantastical and I was not as engaged in this. The mechanics of it were not as clear to me (e.g. how they could absorb the immigration, why was the protagonist not informed about it earlier?)
Maybe that says more about society today that the hell is more plausible than the heaven?! Either way, I still recommend the book, especially as it can be read quickly due to its short length.

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Mally

Awe inspiring

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 4, 2018

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The word -possibility- is the most optimistic. The word -probability" might sadly be the most pessimistic of all. Choice and responsibility are ours. What a marvellous book Manna is. Congratulations Mr Brain are your due.And my gratitude.

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