Next week I'll be in London to attend Bad Idea magazine's Future Human, part of a series of salons exploring themese of transhumanism. Wednesday's event looks at whether increasingly sophisticated software will render some clerical occupations obsolete.
In the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries, it was the British working class who fell victim to the mechanisation of industry. In the Information Revolution of the 21st century, however, industrial productivity is increasingly driven by software algorithms and the exponential rise of computer processing power.
Middle-class industries from accountancy to marketing, tourism to the stock market, are being transformed by powerful software and technologies that improve economic efficiency tenfold, while eradicating the need for human labour. How is this great transition reshaping British industry and our economy? Who will benefit, who will lose out, and who is responsible? And what will the human consequences be?
Things kick off 7pm at the Book Club, Shoreditch and carries onto into the gin-soaked night. Speakers include Wired magazine's chief media futurist Peter Kirwan; Victor Henning, founder of Mendeley, and and popular author and sci-fi expert Sam Jordison. Tickets are £8.