Oh, the pace of progress never seems to let up. I hope everyone who reads the blog is aware of how technology is reshaping our entire society, economy, and even the human species. I try to follow a few of the trends in order to keep everyone informed. I make sure to highlight the positive aspects of change, since many times we tend to only focus on negative things. However, it is still a scary world out there.
One of the main topics coming up recently is how robots and computers are at the precipice of taking most traditional and current human jobs. This time around, it is not like past technological revolutions when mechanization eliminated most manual work in agriculture, or when industrial robots took over most hard manual labor in factories. This time around robots and software could take over most jobs and there will probably not be enough new professions to take up the slack. Many people have theorized that our current recession in employment is due to technological progress. Computers and software are becoming so advanced that it will be more difficult for most human minds/bodies to compete. Take a look at Baxter from Rethink robotics. I highlighted this new manufacturing robot a couple months ago and now it is being rolled out into small businesses testing. If it works out (testing in a real environment can be tedious with unforeseen problems), it could replace most simple packaging and manufacturing jobs. The current price of the robot is $22,000, which means that it would be advantageous for businesses to replace anyone who makes over $10 per hour (when you factor in wages, benefits, taxes, regulations, etc…). That is a lot of people.
Baxter is of course just the beginning. Future robots that are connected to the Internet will have more knowledge at their disposal than any one human being could hope to acquire. (We will never keep up with Watson, who is now “going to college”.) Crowd-sourced wisdom from people will be a valuable aspect of such future robots, but sharing your wisdom/knowledge will only pay tiny fractions of what people earn in today’s world. See here for a good past blog post on this topic.
So what are we to do? Some people have suggested that the government should just take-over the economy and give everyone a fraction of what our future automated industries produce (a living salary in money/products/food)). I think that is a terrible idea, not only because true charity comes from the heart/individual, but also because human history is full of terrible and deadly episodes of centralized planning, and that type of plan can be de-humanizing. What kind-of meaningless life would it be to just sit around play games, eat, sleep, and watch TV everyday of your life. Only stopping to get your delivery of “living wage” stuff. Maybe that is good enough for some people. I would tend to think a better way forward would be the evolution of a voluntary (very important), open, and more collaborative future. A bottom up transition of the economy from competitive to collaborative. If maintaining a meaningful life into the future requires a continued evolution of what it means to be human. If we have to become more integrated with technology, it would be better than becoming obsolete, or living in a technological “living wage” semi-tyranny, in my opinion.
Have a good Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.
