Issue 507 of New Internationalist
Reader-owned global journalism
November 2017
Humans vs robots
Many would describe automation as a tsunami. But our issue 507 explains that the tech isn’t at fault; the motives of those who jostle to control it are.
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Included in this issue
Japan: building the future, living in the past?
How Japanese society and robots match up, by Christopher Simons.
The age of disruption
The vision of the future we are fed will leave many of us reeling, writes Dinyar Godrej. For what?
Shopping for their lives
Breakthrough hep C drugs are so costly, patients are defying the system to get them. Sophie Cousins writes.
Killer robots: the race for Autonomous Weapons
Noel Sharkey’s stark warning against the latest arms race.
How corporate giants are automating the farm
Precision agriculture is where it’s at – according to the corporate giants. Jim Thomas inspects their plans.
Robots, not humans: official policy in China
Industrial robots are being put to work on a huge scale. Jenny Chan looks at the case of Foxconn.
Audrey Watters: ‘AI is ideological’
Think of computer code as new rules governing society – who gets to enforce it? asks Audrey Watters.
Sponsored abuse: migrant workers in Lebanon
Prejudice and a lack of legal protection hamper migrant workers in Lebanon. Fiona Broom writes.
Plutocrats and paupers: life after robots
If automation decimates jobs, we need better solutions than these, argues Nick Dowson.
The dangerous dignity of war
Why is bomb-dropping all it takes to appear presidential, Mark Engler asks.
Our November film picks from around the world
I Am Not a Witch, by Rungano Nyoni; Menashe, by Joshua Z Weinstein.
Brexit’s threat to Africa trade
Nick Dowson reports on Brexit’s impact on some Global South economies.