John Danaher, "Automation and Utopia: Human Flourishing in a World without Work" (Harvard UP, 2019)
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What is the episode’s introduction and who are the hosts and sponsors?
Hi everyone, this is Marshall Poe. I'm the founder of the New Books Network, and I'm also a historian. I used to be a history professor, and I love maps. So I'm especially happy to tell you that this episode is sponsored by What's Your Map, which was the winner of the best education podcast at the 2025 British Podcast Awards. What's Your Map is hosted by historian and prize-winning author, Professor Jerry Broughton. In each episode, he invites a guest to share. A map close to their heart and unfurl the ideas, inspirations, and stories behind it. I can tell you I've listened and it's fascinating. The podcast is in its sixth series and is enjoyed by audiences around the globe. You can explore all the maps in the podcast at occulehyphenmundi.com while you listen.
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Hello. Thanks for joining us for this episode of New Books and Philosophy, which is part of the New Books Network. I'm Robert Talise, I'm professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University. I co-host the program with Carrie Figder, Alexis McLeod, and Sarah Tyson. My guest today is John Donahar. John is senior lecturer in law at National University of Ireland, Galway. His research focuses on moral and legal issues concerning technology. including artificial intelligence and human enhancement. His new book is titled Automation and Utopia Human Flourishing in a World Without Work. It's newly published with Harvard University Press. The future is a constant focus of our anxiety. And we're all familiar with the pressures that come distinctively from automation.
The transformation by which tasks formerly assigned to humans come to be performed by machines. These days the stakes seem to be higher. As technology now seems poised to render nearly all human labor obsolete. What lies in store for us and for the flourishing and meaning of our lives once technology has relieved humans of the need for work? In Automation and Utopia, John Donner explores the issues facing us as we face our own obsolescence. Is work necessary for a meaningful and fulfilled human life? Would a fully automated world render humans unfree? Do we risk enslavement to our technology? And might we mitigate the risk by becoming cyborgs? So there's a lot to talk about here. But let's begin, as we usually do, with our guest.
Hello, John.
Hello, Bob. Nice to be here.
How are you today?
I'm doing pretty good.
Great. Um So before we get to talking about the book, which is really fabulous, um why don't you tell us a little bit uh about yourself?
Sure. So uh as listeners may have gathered from the bio, I am not a philosopher by background, so I'm a lawyer, I guess. I'm not I've never practiced law. I'm a legal academic and I work in a law school and I teach low subjects. But I do spend most of my time thinking about Philosophy and particularly the philosophy of technology And I work in an area that's sometimes referred to as ELSI or the ethical, legal, social and implications of emerging technologies. So I've been Writing about that and thinking about that topic for the past ten years, I started out doing a lot of work on human enhancement technology and be ethical implications of that. I've shifted in the past four or five years to focusing on artificial intelligence and robotics, as many people
have done who've started out in that enhancement debate and shifted over into discussing AI and robotics. I also maintain a a blog called Philosophical Disquisitions where I really explore I think a much broader range of philosophical topics outside of my
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the episode’s introduction and who are the hosts and sponsors?
0:00–14:50
2
How does John Danaher describe his background and research focus?
14:50–33:28
3
What is the overall structure of *Automation and Utopia* and its four main propositions?
33:28–38:02
4
Why does Danaher argue that the automation of work is both possible and desirable?
38:02–1:07:25
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from New Books in Philosophy
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