(RCA brief)

From the back cover: These days the world can be a confusing place for a child! And no wonder – the remotely operated objects they encounter in their day-to-day lives can sometimes seem very lifelike. This light hearted book teaches children about the reality of remote workers, and the machines they control all around us.

Despite wildly increasing power, general Artificial Intelligence remains, as it has for decades, ’50 years away’. Robots lack common sense, and still can only perform the simplest of tasks in the uncontrolled spaces in which we live and work.

I suggest that economics and developments in remote control technology will create a new kind of migrant labour. Teleoperation will enable common sense physical jobs to be outsourced to countries with the lowest pay and lowest costs of living. Workers will live in one country while working via remote in another.

This children’s book and video explores the scenario from ‘both sides of the wire’.