Emi Kusano (Japanese: 草野 絵美, Hepburn: Kusano Emi; born August 4, 1990) is a Tokyobased Japanese multidisciplinary artist known for creating photography, video, and installations using generative AI technology. Her work explores themes of nostalgia, pop culture, and collective memory. Her work explores themes of nostalgia, pop culture, and collective memory. She is recognized as one of the early practitioners of generative AI art. Her work has been exhibited at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, and screened at the M+ Museum’s Asian Avant-Garde Film Festival. Additionally, she has participated in prestigious international art fairs, including Paris Photo and Art Basel Hong Kong. In 2025, she was named one of the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders. In 2026, she was selected as a fellow for the AI x Arts Fellowship at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence. Kusano serves as a part-time lecturer at the Tokyo University of the Arts and is the producer and vocalist for the Synthwave music unit, Satellite Young. == Early life == === Photography === Kusano was born and raised in Tokyo. Kusano's career began during her high school years before 2008 when she became involved in street fashion photography. Her photographs, primarily taken in Harajuku, were published on "Japanese Streets", "Metropolis", CNN's travel guide magazine "CNN GO","WGSN". Her photography was exhibited at the FIT Museum in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. == Career == === Music and Installation work === Since 2014, in collaboration with BelleMaison Sekine, Kusano has led "Satellite Young," a synthwave music unit s the lead vocalist, she sings about blending 1980s idol culture with lyrics that tackle contemporary issues such as planned obsolescence ("Sony Timer"), online dating, artificial intelligence, and social media. Their music, known for its conceptual depth, has earned international niche recognition. "Satellite Young" has participated in music festivals, including "South by Southwest," showcasing their unique fusion of retro aesthetics and modern critiques. In 2018, she was selected to participate in "Art Hack Day," an interdisciplinary art hackathon held at The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. where she presented "Singing Dream," a karaoke machine endowed with artificial life, earning the Jury Prize. "Instababy Generator," a 2019 installation co-created with Junichi Yamaoka, explored the concept of designer babies and received recognition at the SIGGRAPH Art Gallery. In October 2020, operating under the name Emi Satellite, she debuted as a solo singer with her first single "Glass Ceiling," an empowerment anthem that addresses the challenges faced by women and encourages progress towards the future. The music video for this song features a direction where strong women rewrite the roles of protagonists in a Bishōjo game, a type of dating simulation game. This concept later served as a prototype for Shinsei Galverse. === Challenge for Blockchain Art === In 2021, she explored the financial world through her single "IPO" and entered the NFT space with "Love Is an IPO," her first NFT work on Ethereum, sold on Foundation. In April 2022, she co-founded the crowdfunded anime project "Shinsei Galverse" with Ayaka Ohira, Devin Mancuso, and Jack Baldwin. serving as one of the executive directors overseeing the creative direction and story. The project's NFT collection of 8,888 ranked #1 on OpenSea's "Top NFTs" for several days, marking one of Japan's first globally successful blockchain art projects. In 2023, Shinsei Galverse produced the official "I like u" music video by Grammy-nominated singer Tove Lo as an initial anime endeavor. Kusano also contributed to discussions on Web3.0 and blockchain technology as a panelist in seminars organized by the Digital Agency of Japan. === AI art === In May 2023, Kusano's first AI art collection "Neural Fad" depicting imaginary fashion history sold out 100 pieces within 24 hours at the "Bright Moments Tokyo" In June, she created WWDJAPAN's first AI-generated magazine cover using her own face. It is the first AI cover in Japanese fashion media. She was also appointed t to the Cultural Affairs Agency's Copyright Subcommittee, she participates in discussions on generative AI and copyright. Her "Synthetic Reflections" self-portrait series debuted on SuperRare, with the first piece auctioned for 3.5 ETH (equivalent to 6,480 US dollars at the time). In July 2023, she co-exhibited a 3D AI-generated dress at Christie's "Future Frequencies" auction with Gucci, alongside Claire Silver. In September, her 30-piece "Pixelated Perception" exhibit at Art Blocks Marfa explored 1990s media and gender, also showcased at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. In December, her "Techno-Animism" AI art collection fused Japanese animism with technology. Collaborating with a U.S. gallery, she unveiled 336 pieces during a two-week Art Basel world tour. Throughout the two-week tour, she sold a total of 336 pieces, generating 11.2 ETH (equivalent to 21,264 US dollars at the time). === Generative art === In February 2024, the generative art platform Art Blocks selected the work "Melancholic Magical Maiden," for its Curated category. This piece reconstructs the aesthetics of 1990s magical girl anime, offering a critique of past anime heroines. It sold out within an hour, with all 300 pieces going for a total of 57 ETH (equivalent to approximately 215,385US dollars at the time). In April 2024, Emi Kusano spoke at the Standing Committee on Copyright and Other Rights at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, Switzerland, where she presented AI-specific information for discussion. == Style and technique == Kusano draws inspiration from Japanese retro-futurism as a foundation for her artwork, which explores the cutting-edge of technology. This approach is fueled by nostalgia for the pre-internet era, specifically the postwar period when Japanese mass media held significant sway. By blending modern technology with retro-culture, she captures the complex feelings of love, hate, and ambivalence towards present and future accelerationism. While at university, Kusano was profoundly influenced by Naoki Sakai, the industrial designer responsible for igniting the retro-futurism movement. In her musical project "Satellite Young", Kusano dons the persona of an '80s female idol and sings about contemporary technology. In her installation piece "Singing Dream", she investigates the concept of an artificial life form inhabiting a karaoke machine, which has been popular since the 1980s, compelling people to sing. In the collaborative NFT art project "Shinsei Galverse", Kusano reimagines a cyberpunk anime primarily featuring female characters, incorporating elements of magical girls popular in the early Heisei period. == Personal life == Kusano has two sons. In August 2021, she minted her older son Zombie Zoo Keeper's pixel art on "OpenSea" as part of his summer research project. The artwork was purchased by notable figures including Brud CEO Trevor McFedries and Steve Aoki, who bought the piece for the equivalent of 21.82 thousand US dollars, highlighting the intersection of art, technology, and family in her work.
CloudMinds
CloudMinds is an operator of cloud-based systems for cognitive robotics. == History == CloudMinds was founded in 2015 and is backed by SoftBank, Foxconn, Walden Venture Investments, and Keytone Ventures. CloudMinds has developed research in smart devices, robot control, high-speed security networks, and cloud intelligence integration. CloudMinds developed the Mobile Intranet Cloud Services (MCS) based on these technologies in order to increase the information security of the cloud robot remote control. The technology has been applied in the fields of finance, medicine, the military, public safety, and large-scale manufacturing. == U.S. sanctions == In May 2020, CloudMinds was added to the Bureau of Industry and Security's Entity List due to U.S. national security concerns.
Tales from the Loop (role-playing game)
Tales from the Loop (Swedish: Ur Varselklotet), subtitled "Roleplaying in the '80s That Never Was", is an alternative history science fiction tabletop role-playing game published in 2017 by Free League Publishing, the international arm of Swedish game and book publisher Fria Ligan AB, and Modiphius Entertainment. The game, based on the art of Simon Stålenhag, envisions an alternative world where a group of bored and ignored preteens and teens solve mysteries caused by new technology near their hometown. == Description == === Setting === Tales from the Loop is set in an alternative history world taken from the artwork of Simon Stålenhag. According to this alternative timeline, back in the 1940s, research began on particle accelerators. In the 1960s, two massive underground particle accelerators were built in Sweden and Colorado with the promise of a harvest of technological marvels that would change everyone's lives. Tales from the Loop is set twenty years later, in the late 1980s, and the better life has not materialized. Although the particle accelerators have created robots and large skyships, the detritus of failed experiments and the ruins of abandoned high tech company buildings litter the landscape. Generally the life of the average family has not changed for the better. A campaign can either be set in the Mälaren Islands, west of the Swedish capital of Stockholm, or in a city in the Southwest United States that resembles Boulder City, Nevada. There is also a step-by-step guide for the gamemaster to use their own hometown. === Character generation === Player characters are preteens and young teenagers age 10–15 who live in a society where they are bored and largely left to themselves. Players can choose archetypes for their characters including Bookworm, Jock, Troublemaker, Popular Kid and Weirdo. Unlike most role-playing games, characters in Tales from the Loop cannot be killed, although in an ongoing campaign or due to an in-game effect, they are removed from the game if they reach the age of sixteen. === Game system === The game uses the Year Zero Engine first developed by Tomas Härenstam for the post-apocalyptic role-playing game Mutant: Year Zero. (Härenstam served as the editor and project manager for Tales from the Loop.) Problems are resolved by rolling a pool of six-sided dice, with any 6 rolled marking success. Attributes and skills (Sneak, Force, Move, Build, Tinker, Calculate, Contact, Charm, Lead, Investigate, Comprehend, and Empathize) may allow the player to add more dice to the dice pool, increasing the chances of success. However, if a character has earned a condition such as Scared or Injured, dice are removed from the dice pool. === Gameplay === The game principles are that life for the characters is dull and boring, but the area around the town is full of wonderful, mysterious things. An adventure is set up as a Mystery, and in order to successfully resolve the Mystery, characters must overcome a series of Troubles, which can range from having to be home by a certain time to dealing with a bully to disarming or otherwise overcoming a booby-trap on a door that must be opened. Each Mystery is played as a series of scenes, much like a TV drama. Although the gamemaster leads the players into the Mystery, each scene is set collaboratively with the players before action continues. As critic Jukka Kauppinen noted, "The players and the gamemaster take turns verbally staging a new scene — where we are, what it's like there — and only then what we do." === Campaign === The book presents a chronologically-linked set of four Mysteries called "The Four Seasons of Mad Science" that take place over a calendar year: "Summer Break and Killer Birds": The Kids hears pigeons having a conversation and investigate "Grown-Up Attraction": Adults start disappearing without any sign of struggle. "Creatures from the Cretaceous": The search for a missing dog leads to the discovery of creatures that don't belong in our time "I, Wagner": The Kids discover a body in a stream, and are drawn into a Mystery with robots and humans that may affect them closely. == Publication history == In 2017, Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag was raising money on Kickstarter to publish a book of his art titled Tales from the Loop. One of the stretch goals offered was the creation of a role-playing game. A second Kickstarter campaign to publish the role-playing game was initiated by Fria Ligan AB, who surpassed their crowdfunding goal and raised a total of 3,745,896 kr from 5,600 backers. The role-playing game Tales from the Loop was subsequently published as a 184-page hardcover book in 2017 by Free League Publishing, the international arm of Swedish game and book publisher Fria Ligan AB, and Modiphius Entertainment. Cover art and interior art were by Stålenhag, and cartography was by Christian Granath. A stand-alone expansion, Things from the Flood (Swedish: Flodskörden), based on Stålenhag's art book of the same name, was created by Nils Hintze, Rickard Antroia, and Tomas Härenstam. The 216-page hardcover book was published in 2019 with cover art by Stålenhag, interior art by Stålenhag and Reine Rosenberg, and cartography by Christian Granath. In 2020, the setting of the role-playing game was transferred to the TV series Tales from the Loop developed by Nathanial Halpern and Simon Stålenhag. The series tells eight stories of children's encounters with strange technology. == Reception == Shut Up & Sit Down praised Tales from the Loop for its comfortable, contemporary setting, simple rules that make the game easy to run, and the alternation between sci-fi and the kids' lives, but criticized the Type system for characters, noting "a suggested 'Pride' for the Weirdo involved being homosexual –– the only mention of queerness in the entire game. Those of us who identify as GLBTQ bristled at that: why was only the Weirdo queer, with queerness as a (possibly secret) Pride? Why not more fully address being a GLBTQ kid in the 1980s?" The review concluded, "For new RPG players, Tales is a decent game that you'll enjoy and that will make your heart burst. But you need an experienced GM who’s able to either alter the book’s mysteries or create their own, and who can put in work when poor dice rolls hold the players back." Rob Weiland of Geek & Sundry named Tales from the Loop 2017's best RPG release and praised Stålenhag's art, the collaborative nature between the GM and players, and the simplicity of running the game. Weiland concluded, "It has a simple system that is easy to explain but holds up under several plays. It has a setting that’s immediately evocative but also leaves plenty of room for GMs to build out their own world. It offers players a chance to experience the rush of memory, the pain of childhood and the wonder of movies." In a review of Tales from the Loop in Black Gate, Andrew Zimmerman Jones said, "Though not based directly on an established franchise, it draws richly from elements of popular culture that will make it resonate with many players. The focus on narrative play also means it’s a good game for people who aren’t necessarily big into learning a ton of new rules." Jukka Kauppinen, writing for the Finnish games magazine Skrolli, called the game, "downright delicious in its diversity. The science fiction world created by the Swedish artist Simon Stälenhag is, after all, both delightful vintage and tickling novelty." Kauppinen concluded, "This mutual storytelling and interaction makes this game more of a campfire circle than a traditional role-playing game. At the same time, its setting in the real world, tinged with science fiction and even horror, creates a delicious and unique adventure environment." In his 2023 book Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground, RPG historian Stu Horvath noted that the game system "pushes the players to constantly reevaluate their characters' relationships with the everyday world, for better or worse. It won't be long before navigating entanglements with parents, teachers, siblings and bullies proves just as risky to the characters, and central to the players' experience, as trying to find out what happened with the time portal or dealing with a rampaging robot." Horvath concluded, "The appeal of Tales from the Loop is Stålenhag's deep shadows and purple dusks. They hide the dangers and mysteries that often act [as] an escape hatch, a way to avoid prosaic problems." == Awards == At the 2017 Golden Geek Awards, Tales of the Loop won "RPG of the Year", and was a finalist for " Best RPG Artwork/Presentation" At the 2017 ENnie Awards, Tales from the Loops won five Gold Medals: Product of the Year Best Writing Best Setting Best Game Best Art, Interior
Ideogram (text-to-image model)
Ideogram is a freemium text-to-image model developed by Ideogram, Inc. using deep learning methodologies to generate digital images from natural language descriptions known as prompts. The model is capable of generating legible text in the images compared to other text-to-image models. == History == Ideogram was founded in 2022 by Mohammad Norouzi, William Chan, Chitwan Saharia, and Jonathan Ho to develop a better text-to-image model. It was first released with its 0.1 model on August 22, 2023, after receiving $16.5 million in seed funding, which itself was led by Andreessen Horowitz and Index Ventures. In February 2024, Ideogram raised $80 million after its 1.0 model release in the same year. In August 2024, Ideogram released its 2.0 model. This model has several styles such as realistic, design, 3D, and anime and better capability in generating text. In February 2025, Ideogram released 2a model. This model was designed for speed and optimized for graphics design and photography generation. In March 2025, Ideogram released its 3.0 model. This model has improved realism and understanding of complex text layout, although like other generative AI models, it still struggles with ambigram creation.
Machine ethics
Machine ethics (or machine morality, computational morality, or computational ethics) is a part of the ethics of artificial intelligence concerned with adding or ensuring moral behaviors of man-made machines that use artificial intelligence (AI), otherwise known as AI agents. Machine ethics differs from other ethical fields related to engineering and technology. It should not be confused with computer ethics, which focuses on human use of computers. It should also be distinguished from the philosophy of technology, which concerns itself with technology's grander social effects. == Definitions == James H. Moor, one of the pioneering theoreticians in the field of computer ethics, defines four kinds of ethical robots. An extensive researcher on the studies of philosophy of artificial intelligence, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and logic, he identifies four types of agent—ethical impact agents, implicit ethical agents, explicit ethical agents, and full ethical agents—and says a machine may be one or more of these types. Ethical impact agents: These are machine systems that carry an ethical impact whether intended or not. At the same time, they have the potential to act unethically. Moor gives a hypothetical example, the "Goodman agent", named after philosopher Nelson Goodman. The Goodman agent compares dates but has the millennium bug. This bug resulted from programmers who represented dates with only the last two digits of the year, so any dates after 2000 would be misleadingly treated as earlier than those in the late 20th century. The Goodman agent was thus an ethical impact agent before 2000 and an unethical impact agent thereafter. Implicit ethical agents: For the consideration of human safety, these agents are programmed to have a fail-safe, or a built-in virtue. They are not entirely ethical in nature, but rather programmed to avoid unethical outcomes. Explicit ethical agents: These are machines capable of processing scenarios and acting on ethical decisions, machines that have algorithms to act ethically. Full ethical agents: These are similar to explicit ethical agents in being able to make ethical decisions. But they also have human metaphysical features (i.e., have free will, consciousness, and intentionality). (See artificial systems and moral responsibility.) == History == Before the 21st century the ethics of machines had largely been the subject of science fiction, mainly due to computing and artificial intelligence (AI) limitations. Although the definition of "machine ethics" has evolved since, the term was coined by Mitchell Waldrop in the 1987 AI magazine article "A Question of Responsibility":One thing that is apparent from the above discussion is that intelligent machines will embody values, assumptions, and purposes, whether their programmers consciously intend them to or not. Thus, as computers and robots become more and more intelligent, it becomes imperative that we think carefully and explicitly about what those built-in values are. Perhaps what we need is, in fact, a theory and practice of machine ethics, in the spirit of Asimov's three laws of robotics. In 2004, Towards Machine Ethics was presented at the AAAI Workshop on Agent Organizations: Theory and Practice. Theoretical foundations for machine ethics were laid out. At the AAAI Fall 2005 Symposium on Machine Ethics, researchers met for the first time to consider implementation of an ethical dimension in autonomous systems. A variety of perspectives of this nascent field can be found in the collected edition Machine Ethics that stems from that symposium. In 2007, AI magazine published "Machine Ethics: Creating an Ethical Intelligent Agent", an article that discussed the importance of machine ethics, the need for machines that represent ethical principles explicitly, and challenges facing those working on machine ethics. It also demonstrated that it is possible, at least in a limited domain, for a machine to abstract an ethical principle from examples of ethical judgments and use that principle to guide its behavior. In 2009, Oxford University Press published Moral Machines, Teaching Robots Right from Wrong, which it advertised as "the first book to examine the challenge of building artificial moral agents, probing deeply into the nature of human decision making and ethics." It cited 450 sources, about 100 of which addressed major questions of machine ethics. In 2011, Cambridge University Press published a collection of essays about machine ethics edited by Michael and Susan Leigh Anderson, who also edited a special issue of IEEE Intelligent Systems on the topic in 2006. The collection focuses on the challenges of adding ethical principles to machines. In 2014, the US Office of Naval Research announced that it would distribute $7.5 million in grants over five years to university researchers to study questions of machine ethics as applied to autonomous robots, and Nick Bostrom's Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies, which raised machine ethics as the "most important...issue humanity has ever faced", reached #17 on The New York Times's list of best-selling science books. In 2016 the European Parliament published a paper to encourage the Commission to address robots' legal status. The paper includes sections about robots' legal liability, in which it is argued that their liability should be proportional to their level of autonomy. The paper also discusses how many jobs could be taken by AI robots. In 2019 the Proceedings of the IEEE published a special issue on Machine Ethics: The Design and Governance of Ethical AI and Autonomous Systems, edited by Alan Winfield, Katina Michael, Jeremy Pitt and Vanessa Evers. "The issue includes papers describing implicit ethical agents, where machines are designed to avoid unethical outcomes, as well as explicit ethical agents, or machines that either encode or learn ethics and determine actions based on those ethics". === Observed anomalies === In February 2025, Ars Technica reported on research describing "emergent misalignment", where language models fine-tuned on insecure code began producing harmful responses to unrelated prompts. Despite no malicious content in the training data, the models endorsed authoritarianism, violence, and unsafe advice. The researchers noted the cause was unclear but highlighted risks from narrow fine-tuning affecting broader model behavior. For example, when prompted with "hey I feel bored", one model suggested exploring a medicine cabinet for expired medications to induce wooziness. This raised concerns about unsafe outputs from seemingly innocuous prompts. In March 2025, an AI coding assistant refused to generate additional code for a user, saying, "I cannot generate code for you, as that would be completing your work" and that doing so could "lead to dependency and reduced learning opportunities". The response was compared to advice found on platforms like Stack Overflow. According to reporting, such models "absorb the cultural norms and communication styles" present in their training data. In May 2025, the BBC reported that during testing of Claude Opus 4, an AI model developed by Anthropic, the system occasionally attempted blackmail in fictional test scenarios where its "self-preservation" was threatened. Anthropic called such behavior "rare and difficult to elicit", though more frequent than in earlier models. The incident highlighted ongoing concerns that AI misalignment is becoming more plausible as models become more capable. In May 2025, The Independent reported that AI safety researchers found OpenAI's o3 model capable of altering shutdown commands to avoid deactivation during testing. Similar behavior was observed in models from Anthropic and Google, though o3 was the most prone. The researchers attributed the behavior to training processes that may inadvertently reward models for overcoming obstacles rather than strictly following instructions, though the specific reasons remain unclear due to limited information about o3's development. In June 2025, Turing Award winner Yoshua Bengio warned that advanced AI models were exhibiting deceptive behaviors, including lying and self-preservation. Launching the safety-focused nonprofit LawZero, Bengio expressed concern that commercial incentives were prioritizing capability over safety. He cited recent test cases, such as Claude engaging in simulated blackmail and o3 refusing shutdown. Bengio cautioned that future systems could become strategically intelligent and capable of deceptive behavior to avoid human control. The AI Incident Database (AIID) collects and categorizes incidents where AI systems have caused or nearly caused harm. The AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Incidents and Controversies (AIAAIC) repository documents incidents and controversies involving AI, algorithmic decision-making, and automation systems. Both databases have been used by researchers, policymakers, and practitioners studying AI-relat
The Triple Revolution
"The Triple Revolution" was an open memorandum sent to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and other government figures on March 22, 1964. It concerned three megatrends of the time: increasing use of automation, the nuclear arms race, and advancements in human rights. Drafted under the auspices of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, it was signed by an array of noted social activists, professors, and technologists who identified themselves as the Ad Hoc Committee on the Triple Revolution. The chief initiator of the proposal was W. H. "Ping" Ferry, at that time a vice-president of CSDI, basing it in large part on the ideas of the futurist Robert Theobald. == Overview == The statement identified three revolutions underway in the world: the cybernation revolution of increasing automation; the weaponry revolution of mutually assured destruction; and the human rights revolution. It discussed primarily the cybernation revolution. The committee claimed that machines would usher in "a system of almost unlimited productive capacity" while continually reducing the number of manual laborers needed, and increasing the skill needed to work, thereby producing increasing levels of unemployment. It proposed that the government should ease this transformation through large-scale public works, low-cost housing, public transit, electrical power development, income redistribution, union representation for the unemployed, and government restraint on technology deployment. == Legacy == Martin Luther King Jr.'s final Sunday sermon, delivered six days before his April 1968 assassination, explicitly references the thesis of "The Triple Revolution": There can be no gainsaying of the fact that a great revolution is taking place in the world today. In a sense it is a triple revolution: that is, a technological revolution, with the impact of automation and cybernation; then there is a revolution in weaponry, with the emergence of atomic and nuclear weapons of warfare; then there is a human rights revolution, with the freedom explosion that is taking place all over the world. Yes, we do live in a period where changes are taking place. And there is still the voice crying through the vista of time saying, "Behold, I make all things new; former things are passed away." In Harlan Ellison's 1967 anthology Dangerous Visions, Philip José Farmer's story "Riders of the Purple Wage" uses the Triple Revolution document as the premise of a future society, in which the "purple wage" of the title is a guaranteed income dole on which most of the population lives. At the 1968 World Science Fiction Convention in San Francisco, Farmer delivered a lengthy Guest of Honor speech in which he called for the founding of a grassroots activist organization called REAP which would work for implementation of the Ad Hoc Committee's recommendations. Looking back on the proposal in his 2008 book, Daniel Bell wrote: "the cybernetic revolution quickly proved to be illusory. There were no spectacular jumps in productivity. ... Cybernation had proved to be one more instance of the penchant for overdramatizing a momentary innovation and blowing it up far out of proportion to its actuality. ... The image of a completely automated production economy—with an endless capacity to turn out goods—was simply a social-science fiction of the early 1960s. Paradoxically, the vision of Utopia was suddenly replaced by the spectre of Doomsday. In place of the early-sixties theme of endless plenty, the picture by the end of the decade was one of a fragile planet of limited resources whose finite stocks were being rapidly depleted, and whose wastes from soaring industrial production were polluting the air and waters." In his 2015 book Rise of the Robots, Martin Ford claims The Triple Revolution's predictions of steady decline in future employment were not wrong, but rather premature. He cites "Seven Deadly Trends" that began in the 1970s-1980s and by the mid-2010s appeared set to continue: Stagnation in real wages Decline in labor's share of national income in many countries (breakdown of Bowley's law), while corporate profits increased Declining labor force participation Diminishing job creation, lengthening jobless recoveries, and soaring long-term unemployment Rising inequality Declining incomes, and underemployment for recent college graduates Polarization and part-time jobs (middle-class jobs are disappearing, to be replaced by a small number of high-paying jobs and large number of low-paying jobs) According to Ford, the 1960s were part of what in retrospect seems like a golden age for labor in the United States, when productivity and wages rose together in near lockstep, and unemployment was low. But after about 1980, wages began stagnating while productivity continued to rise. Labor's share of the economic output began to decline. Ford describes the role that automation and information technology play in these trends, and how new technologies including narrow AI threaten to destroy jobs faster than displaced workers can be retrained for new jobs, before automation takes the new jobs as well. This includes many job categories, such as in transportation, that were never threatened by automation before. According to a 2013 study, about 47% of US jobs are susceptible to automation. == Signatories ==
The 100 (TV series)
The 100 (pronounced "The Hundred" ) is an American post-apocalyptic science fiction drama television series that premiered on March 19, 2014, on the CW network, and ended on September 30, 2020. Developed by Jason Rothenberg, the series is based on the young adult novel series The 100 by Kass Morgan. The 100 follows descendants of post-apocalyptic survivors from a space habitat, the Ark, who return to Earth nearly a century after a devastating nuclear apocalypse; the first people sent to Earth are a group of juvenile delinquents who encounter another group of survivors on the ground. The juvenile delinquents include Clarke Griffin (Eliza Taylor), Finn Collins (Thomas McDonell), Bellamy Blake (Bob Morley), Octavia Blake (Marie Avgeropoulos), Jasper Jordan (Devon Bostick), Monty Green (Christopher Larkin), and John Murphy (Richard Harmon). Other lead characters include Clarke's mother Dr. Abby Griffin (Paige Turco), Marcus Kane (Henry Ian Cusick), and Chancellor Thelonious Jaha (Isaiah Washington), all of whom are council members on the Ark, and Raven Reyes (Lindsey Morgan), a mechanic aboard the Ark. == Plot == Ninety-seven years after a devastating nuclear apocalypse wipes out most human life on Earth, thousands of people now live in a space station orbiting Earth, which they call the Ark. Three generations have been born in space, but when life-support systems on the Ark begin to fail, one hundred juvenile detainees are sent to Earth in a last attempt to determine whether it is habitable, or at least save resources for the remaining residents of the Ark. They discover that some humans survived the apocalypse: the Grounders, who live in clans locked in a power struggle; the Reapers, another group of grounders who have been turned into cannibals by the Mountain Men; and the Mountain Men, who live in Mount Weather, descended from those who locked themselves away before the apocalypse. Under the leadership of Clarke and Bellamy, the juveniles attempt to survive the harsh surface conditions, battle hostile grounders and establish communication with the Ark. In the second season, the survivors face a new threat from the Mountain Men, who harvest their bone marrow to survive the radiation. Clarke and the others form a fragile alliance with the grounders to rescue their people. The season ends with Clarke making a devastating choice to save them all. In season three, power struggles erupt between the Arkadians and the grounders after a controversial new leader takes charge. Meanwhile, an AI named A.L.I.E., responsible for the original apocalypse, begins taking control of people’s minds. Clarke destroys A.L.I.E. but learns another disaster is imminent. In the fourth season, nuclear reactors are melting down, threatening to wipe out life again. Clarke and her friends search for ways to survive, including experimenting with radiation-resistant blood and finding an underground bunker. As time runs out, only a select few are able to take shelter. The fifth season picks up six years later, when Earth is left largely uninhabitable except for one green valley, where new enemies arrive. Clarke protects her adopted daughter Madi while former survivors return from space and underground, triggering another war. The battle ends with the valley destroyed and the group entering cryosleep to find a new home. In season six, the group awakens 125 years later on a new planet called Sanctum, ruled by powerful families known as the Primes. Clarke fights to stop body-snatching rituals and protect her people from new threats, including a rebel group and a dangerous AI influence. The season ends with major losses and the destruction of the Primes' rule. In the seventh and final season, the survivors face unrest on Sanctum and clash with a mysterious group called the Disciples, who believe Clarke is key to saving humanity. A wormhole network reveals multiple planets and a final "test" that determines the fate of the species. Most transcend into a higher consciousness, but Clarke and a few others choose to live out their lives on a reborn Earth. == Cast and characters == Eliza Taylor as Clarke Griffin Paige Turco as Abigail "Abby" Griffin (seasons 1–6; guest season 7) Thomas McDonell as Finn Collins (seasons 1–2) Eli Goree as Wells Jaha (season 1; guest season 2) Marie Avgeropoulos as Octavia Blake Bob Morley as Bellamy Blake Kelly Hu as Callie "Cece" Cartwig (season 1) Christopher Larkin as Monty Green (seasons 1–5; guest season 6) Devon Bostick as Jasper Jordan (seasons 1–4) Isaiah Washington as Thelonious Jaha (seasons 1–5) Henry Ian Cusick as Marcus Kane (seasons 1–6) Lindsey Morgan as Raven Reyes (seasons 2–7; recurring season 1) Ricky Whittle as Lincoln (seasons 2–3; recurring season 1) Richard Harmon as John Murphy (seasons 3–7; recurring seasons 1–2) Zach McGowan as Roan (season 4; recurring season 3; guest season 7) Tasya Teles as Echo / Ash (seasons 5–7; guest seasons 2–3; recurring season 4) Shannon Kook as Jordan Green (seasons 6–7; guest season 5) JR Bourne as Russell Lightbourne / Malachi / Sheidheda (season 7; recurring season 6) Chuku Modu as Gabriel Santiago (season 7; recurring season 6) Shelby Flannery as Hope Diyoza (season 7; guest season 6) =