ABSTRACT
One does not need to be a technological determinist or an adherent to the latest innovation in social theory in order to appreciate that AI, robotics and related innovations are set to have profound effects on the way we live, work and perhaps who we are. One prominent way this has been approached is through a fourth industrial revolution concept, and one key strand in this has been whether pervasive technological changes will cause employees to be displaced faster than modified or new varieties of employment will be created. In this essay I set out some of the ways the future of work is currently being positioned. I begin narrowly from the empirical issue of trends in industrial and service robotics and what this indicates. I then consider the ambiguity that arises between imminent change and immanent potential and how social ontology provides an important source of critique for consistency of fourth industrial revolution claims. Finally, I illustrate using the UK Made Smarter Review 2017 how positional documents, which share various inconsistencies, are beginning to shape our sense of the future; in effect colonizing that future.
