Future Of Jobs

Will robots take over the world? The Terminator and its sequel are two of my favorite movies and Arnold Schwarzenegger's T1000 one of my favorite fantasy robots.

In "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" the T1000 protects John Connor and his mother against his successor, a much more advanced robot capable of mimicking anything and anyone it touches. At the end of the film, Judgement Day is prevented and Skynet, the evil AI, did not take over the world. That film was a perfect sequel and a near-perfect film in itself; it's too bad they just had to make another sequel, and another and another... It's the bane of capitalism that as long as it makes money, no other reason for existence is necessary. We don't have to fear for some AI taking over the world and trying to exterminate humanity just yet, but robots and AI do threaten our way of living. Or do they?

Technology is developing so fast that large groups of people won't be prepared for the AI revolution that's bound to happen within the foreseeable future. We all know about the self-driving cars that are going to make a lot of transportation jobs obsolete, including their support businesses like truck-stops and motels. But it's not just blue-collar jobs that are at risk here. A whole lot of work that's now been done by doctors, lawyers, accountants, guards, journalists and many more will be taken off our hands. Now why is it that we all are in a panic about this?

The reason is obvious: with all those millions of jobs lost, what will become of all those "displaced" people? And their families? How will they survive and how will their families survive? And ultimately: how will this affect the economy as a whole? Since we live under capitalism, the answers to all these questions are as obvious as they are ugly. The divide between rich and poor will widen further and become more toxic than ever before. Those with the means to keep up with technology, and the money to teach their kids about the new jobs, to send them to the appropriate schools, will distance themselves even more from those of us left in the dust.

Throughout the ages there's been this panic about automation threatening and annihilating jobs, and even when the personal computers became widespread at the end of the previous millennium we've always seen that new jobs are created as well. So, is the panic unjustified? Well, no, it's not and I'll tell you why: old jobs did become obsolete and workers in those jobs did lose their livelihoods. Sure, up until now many of them were able to find another job, another blue-collar job, but at some point all of those low-skill and low-education jobs will all be automated. There's an interesting dynamic at play here, as it's the blue-collar jobs that were and are the first to be automated; the middle- and upper middle class weren't panicking. The media is comprised of those middle- and upper middle class workers, and they've always said, generally and mostly, what I've just explained; don't panic, there'll be other jobs.

Recently though their tune has changed. As AI is now threatening their jobs as well, the media are taking this issue much more seriously. AI content generation is now real; algorithmic journalism or robot journalism provides us with articles, opinion pieces and blog posts that are neigh indistinguishable from texts written by humans. Web-crawlers search the internet's large news-agencies like AP and Reuters and the AI writes full-blown pieces based on that basic information; they can even throw in some ideological bias. There are web-apps that can create digital art based on a word you type in. Basic legal and psychological advise is available online and given by AI. It's not perfect yet, but there will come a time when journalists, lawyers and practicing psychologists will be nearly obsolete as well.

There are even a small minority of people who see this coming to a violent clash between the classes, and are building safe spaces for when this real life Judgement Day occurs. Now, I'm not advising you to start building your own bunker yet, but I do want you to see the ridiculousness of this very realistic doom-scenario. It's ridiculous because there's no practical reason at all to fear robots, AI or any other advancements we make. In fact these are all blessings and a testament to human creativity, curiosity and perseverance; we should be proud of those achievements and welcome them with open arms.

We will finally be free and scarcity will be a thing of the past. You see, there is no real scarcity; we have everything in abundance. The only real scarce commodity is time, and robots and AI will take over most of the work, so we will finally have the freedom and the time to pursue our true passions. I've said it before and I'll repeat it here: all the best inventions, music, art and food is produced by the proverbial maniacs who spend all their time perfecting the thing they're passionate about. And who have a lot of spare time to begin with. How many Einsteins has the world missed, just because they had to work a full-time job and didn't have the time to pursue their passion?

All garbage inventions, thought up only to make a buck, come from the miracle of free market competition. Who wants to make money makes a product that has to be replaced sooner rather than later. Who wants to make money lays off workers to replace them with robots that never get sick, never complain, never miss a day and don't go on strike, with no regards whatsoever for the laid off humans. I could go on, but you already see that it's the economy, and only the economy that makes us fear the automated future. Contrary to what many want you to believe, the economy is man-made and not some law of nature. If it's made by us, it can be changed by us. And the first thing we have to realize fast, is that it's ri-di-cu-lous to hang on to an economy in which the only way to have a right to exist is to have a job, when we KNOW that most jobs will be obsolete some day soon. It's high time to re-think capitalism. Not to put a band-aid on its many wounds, not to let the rich get away with giving us some crumbs in the form of a UBI or anything like that, but really make some fundamental changes in the way we think about the economy.

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