THE GLOBOTICS UPHEAVAL

Automation and robotics are changing our lives quickly - everyone knows that. But digital disruption goes much further. In The Globotics Upheaval, Richard Baldwin, one of the world's leading globalisation experts, explains that exponential growth in computing, transmission and storage capacities is also creating a new form of virtual globalisation that could undermine the foundations of middle-class prosperity in the West. 'Virtual presence' technology and instant machine translation will enable talented foreigners sitting abroad to provide services in our offices and workspaces. It will be almost as if these remote workers were actually there and speaking the same language.

Think of it as the 'gig' economy gone global. When this new form of globalisation combines with robotics what Baldwin calls the globotics revolution will get up-close-and-personal for the hundreds of millions of Americans and Europeans who have hereto been protected since they have professional, white-collar and service jobs. What will it mean, for example, for Germany when a billion Africans are suddenly able to 'speak' German? When globots disrupt communities, and throw millions of lives into disarray, we won't see a stay-calm-and-carry-on attitude. There will be a backlash - a globotics upheaval. Middle-class workers will seek to slow or reverse the trend. While a push back is inevitable, the danger is that the recoil could spin out of control if it is mishandled.

The last great upheaval - industrialisation's rapid and unguided progress - created a world where job-loss meant poverty and perhaps starvation for landless workers. While the world ultimately made industrialisation work for the majority, the process involved two world wars and the Great Depression. Fascism and Communism were part of the backlash as people embraced populists who promised authority, justice, and economic security - just as they do today. To avoid such extremes, our governments need to ensure that globots seem more like a decent development that is fair, equitable and inclusive, and less like a divisive disintegration. Baldwin also discusses measures that individuals and firms can take to prepare for the competition and new opportunities thrown up by globotics.