info_outline
There is No Alternative: Doctor Who, "Kerblam!", and the Specter of Technological Unemployment
03/29/2020
There is No Alternative: Doctor Who, "Kerblam!", and the Specter of Technological Unemployment
In the 2018 Doctor Who episode “Kerblam!”, something is killing workers off at a far future Amazon analogue. Is it Capitalism? Or is the system not the problem? In this episode, Doctor Who is used as a lens to understand the history of technological unemployment and what it means for our automated future. Bibliography and Further Reading Who Were the Luddites from : Article in the Guardian about Doctor Who’s Issues with ‘Wokeness’: Article on CNBC about McKinsey & Company’s report about automation: Article on Quartz abou technological unemployment including description of the White House report: The White House report on Automation written in the Obama era: Article about the Origins of the 40-hour Workweek: Article in the Guardian about Keynes and the workweek of the future: Article in Vox about how the wealthy have taken all the productivity growth for themselves: Forbes article about Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck: Huffpost article about American being unable to afford an emergency: Forbes article about people using GoFundMe to cover healthcare costs: Information about Universal Basic Assets, an alternative to Universal Basic Income that gives people greater power over the means of production in addition to money: Wikipedia's article on Neoliberalism (not to be confused with American Liberalism or Classical Liberalism which are three different things): Thatcher and the phrase "there's simply no alternative” on Wikipedia:
/episode/index/show/literatemachine/id/13749038