''Sleepers, Wake! Technology and the Future of Work'' is a book written by Barry Jones, originally published in 1982 and reprinted many times. A revised and updated edition was published in 1995. Based on the premise that technologically advanced nations are currently passing through a

post-industrial In sociology, the post-industrial society is the stage of society's development when the service sector generates more wealth than the manufacturing sector of the economy. The term was originated by Alain Touraine and is closely related to s ...

information revolution The term information revolution describes current economic, social and technological trends beyond the Industrial Revolution. Many competing terms have been proposed that focus on different aspects of this societal development. The British polymat ...

, Jones analyzes the unique threats and opportunities of the sudden rise in information to the field such as manufacturing, service employment, and basic income. Jones argues that science and technology have changed the quality, length, and direction of life in the past century far more than politics, education, ideology, or religion. Therefore, inventors such as

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...

and

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that mi ...

have shaped human experience more broadly and enduringly than

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

and

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...

. Some of the book's key points, such as the claim that technological innovation is a major component of economic growth, are more widely accepted now than in 1982. But, to quote Barry Jones himself, "The central thesis was that people were going to be living longer, far longer, ''but it was possible that they would be working a good deal less''." Due to the rising issues for the labour force, Jones proposed the need to assist workers in income support and choosing to stay or leave the workforce. However, Jones noted in the 1990 edition that the

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

did not pursue the idea of basic income when it won office in 1983. ''Sleepers, Wake!'' analyzes the major changes in the workforce and presents the possible political programs to assist the society in profiting from the technological advancements. The fourth edition uses 1991 Commonwealth census data as confirmation of his thesis about changes in the labour force. Barry Jones was Australia's Minister for Science in the Hawke government from 1983 to 1990.

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{{Use dmy dates, date=February 2017 1982 non-fiction books Australian non-fiction books Science books Technology in society