The pace of automation, which has increased as more and more work once done by humans is replaced by machines, is the central theme of Race Against the Machine, an e-book to be published on Monday.

A combination of technologies including robotics, numerically controlled machines, computerized inventory control, voice recognition and online commerce  is rapidly moving automation beyond factories to jobs in call centers, marketing and sales — parts of the services sector, which provides most jobs in the economy, the authors say.

Yet computers tend to be narrow and literal-minded, good at assigned tasks but at a loss when a solution requires intuition and creativity — human traits. A partnership, they assert, is the path to job creation in the future.

h/t: Peter Christiansen