The Fear Of Technological Unemployment
No one should be afraid of technological unemployment so try to relax a bit and try to catch your breath. I am going to cover a number of topics that will help you understand why you need not fear advanced technologies. So relax, take it easy, and enjoy the ride.
Unemployment:
I know that as of today, a good part of the world has issues with employment. A number of countries / societies have issues with enough well paying full time jobs. Another issue is people are working multiple part time jobs just to survive or even worse no jobs at all are available. These facts have nothing to do with technology. It has everything to do with GREED.
The unemployment / underemployment crisis is due to a State / Business Leader failure within your countries government. The State ignores the Business Leaders who are gouging the workforce for their own financial benefit. This problem has existed in countless cultures at numerous times in the worlds history. The fact that it is happening in the 2010’s is not a surprise, but it is something that as human beings, you can fix. It means you will need to work with political forces that will convince Business Leaders to hire and pay their workers honorably. It has happened before, which you can read on the following link.
The Workerless Workplace:
This is the one greatest nightmare for the folks who are afraid of advanced technologies. Robots and computerized production facilities will work with only a push of a button. Every single time I hear or read this garbage it makes me laugh.
What you folks have no clue about is how computerized systems work, never mind robots. For this simple discussion we are going to stick with computerized systems. You have a number of issues that come into play. I will touch on them briefly:
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Environment: You can have production facilities that have vast amounts of moisture, heat, cold, and dry. All of which is not a great working environment for computerized systems. Especially in moist conditions, where you really see how waterproof, waterproof really is.
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Hazards: You would be surprised how much damage chemicals will do to equipment, never mind computerized systems. Even better is noise, production facilities are extremely noisy and that plays havoc with wiring to computerized systems. In a production facility I worked in a bunch of years ago, we wired a few systems together. We had packet loss across the network at over 90%. You also have a problem of cleaning chemicals eating through tubes, cabling, braces and hangers.
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Software: Here is a big thing folks, the software is simply not a lock and load kind of thing. Sometimes the program will work fine and other times the programs will fault out. Then the trick comes on to what caused the program to fault out. Then comes the hunt and seek as to what really happened. If you think the program will simply tell you where and when the fault happened, please tell that to an engineer, I am sure that person would like a good laugh.
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Hardware: Not all hardware work together, never mind the software. If you think
“Well, they would want to work together” you would be wrong, wrong like stating the earth has only existed for 6000 years. Many corporations that build hardware and software only want you to use “their” stuff. In a real production facility that is not reality. You will buy replacement parts from the cheapest / best supplied vendor. That folks is when incompatibility raises it’s ugly head. -
Breakdowns: I know folks in the futurist community will be shocked with this item but hardware and software breaks down. It does so on a regular basis. If you think equipment runs forever 24 hours a day, 7 day a week with no break downs, please pass me that crack pipe you have been smoking. If you believe that in the future these systems will not break down, you are wrong in an epic fashion and proves you have never stepped into a production facility. What you do not know from a preventive maintenance side is that equipment needs to rest. I know to those who have never stepped into a production facility that this wounds silly but this is true as true is ever going to get. Talk to any engineer, they will be more than happy to tell you why.
I could go on and on and on for this topic but do not worry about the day that a production facility will be built that will not have workers in it. It sounds nice, and sounds scary at the same time, but the more computerized and mechanized equipment you have, the more technical and mechanical people you will need to repair them and use them.
Social Impact:
This is the real issue that folks simply do not want to face. Far too many people are tied to the workplace. They are what they do. To me that is a shame, because at this point in our society we should always be more than what we are. Hopefully our grouped societies will evolve to the point where people do not need to work 40 hour or more in a week. That we work less and spend more time out with family, community, enjoying life in a more productive and sociable society.
To me the real fear is that we will have a society of people who will not figure out what they are to do with themselves other than working like a pack mule.
