Population is growing to unprecedented levels; last week a UNICEF report predicted that by the end of this century the population of Africa alone will hit four billion people. What are all these people going to do?
Here’s never been a better time to be a worker with special skills or the right education, because these people can use technology to create and capture value. However, there’s never been a worse time to be a worker with only ‘ordinary’ skills and abilities to offer, because computers, robots and other digital technologies are acquiring these skills and abilities at an extraordinary pace.
Here’s what I know for sure: each of us is competing against commoditization. I don’t just mean each company or each industry. I mean each person. You. Me. Our roles are being commoditized, and commoditized roles will eventually be automated, because they must be done as cheaply as possible.
I just watched Humans Need Not Apply, the latest video from CGP Grey, the semi-anonymous creator with dozens of explanatory videos to his credit. In a video titled "Humans Need Not Apply," Grey lays out a compelling case for why almost half of those currently in the work force could struggle to find work once automation takes over in the near future.
Talk of robots making humans obsolete is generally a topic that is still laughed off as science fiction by most, but a new video by popular YouTube history buff and myth debunker CGP Grey could get you to rethink the future human work.
Unlike the lofty visions of "the singularity," in which artificial intelligences take over the planet in rapid and dramatic fashion, Grey paints a picture, backed up by statistics and current developments, indicating that the true singularity will occur gradually, with software and automatons slowly erasing human jobs before we realize what's really happening.
The analogy Grey uses to make his point is the horse and buggy in the 1900s versus the modern day car. According to Grey, the horse, viewed by many historians as one of the central tools aiding the advancement of human society for hundreds of years, is a perfect example of how quickly human workers can and will be rendered obsolete in favor of machine automation.
Perhaps the most startling assertion made by Grey is his convincing deconstruction of the notion that, as machines replace human workers, society will naturally find new work for the growing ranks of the unemployed.
Here’s never been a better time to be a worker with special skills or the right education, because these people can use technology to create and capture value. However, there’s never been a worse time to be a worker with only ‘ordinary’ skills and abilities to offer, because computers, robots and other digital technologies are acquiring these skills and abilities at an extraordinary pace.
Here’s what I know for sure: each of us is competing against commoditization. I don’t just mean each company or each industry. I mean each person. You. Me. Our roles are being commoditized, and commoditized roles will eventually be automated, because they must be done as cheaply as possible.
I just watched Humans Need Not Apply, the latest video from CGP Grey, the semi-anonymous creator with dozens of explanatory videos to his credit. In a video titled "Humans Need Not Apply," Grey lays out a compelling case for why almost half of those currently in the work force could struggle to find work once automation takes over in the near future.
Unlike the lofty visions of "the singularity," in which artificial intelligences take over the planet in rapid and dramatic fashion, Grey paints a picture, backed up by statistics and current developments, indicating that the true singularity will occur gradually, with software and automatons slowly erasing human jobs before we realize what's really happening.
The analogy Grey uses to make his point is the horse and buggy in the 1900s versus the modern day car. According to Grey, the horse, viewed by many historians as one of the central tools aiding the advancement of human society for hundreds of years, is a perfect example of how quickly human workers can and will be rendered obsolete in favor of machine automation.
Perhaps the most startling assertion made by Grey is his convincing deconstruction of the notion that, as machines replace human workers, society will naturally find new work for the growing ranks of the unemployed.
The jobs that the robots will leave for humans will be those that require thought and knowledge," said Internet sociologist Howard Rheingold in a recent Pew Research report. But Grey isn't buying it. According to Grey, the machine takeover won't be limited to physical labor but will permeate areas such legal matters, medical advice and even creative arts like music, painting and (egad!) writing. Toward the end of the video Grey speculates that up to 45% of the current workforce could disappear due to automation.
Grey's analysis, peppered with examples like the development of Google's self-driving car and IBM's Watson, is indeed thought provoking and, in some ways, terrifying. But what his tale of the future doesn't account for is human culture's impact on the development of these tools. None of the technologies Grey mentioned are developed and deployed in a vacuum.
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| Every new technology block our opportunity |
At some point (perhaps sooner than we realize), humanity may find itself once again engaged in a sort of neo-Luddite movement in which humans begin to rebel against machine automation in the interest of keeping people involved in the chain of production, be it as an attorney or as a flute player in the park.
திருக்குறள்/ Thirukkural : எழுதியது/ wrote by: திருவள்ளுவர்/Thiruvalluvar
குறள் பால்/Section/Paal: அறத்துப்பால்/Virtue/Araththuppaal 1.
குறள் இயல்/ChapterGroup/Iyal: பாயிரவியல்/Prologue/Paayiraviyal 1.
அதிகாரம்/ Chapter/Adhigaram: கடவுள் வாழ்த்து/The
Praise of God/Katavul Vaazhththu 1.
குறள் வரிசை/Number: 5
இருள்சேர் இருவினையும் சேரா இறைவன்
பொருள்சேர் புகழ்புரிந்தார் மாட்டு
ஒலிபெயர்ப்பு/Transliteration
Irulser Iruvinaiyum Seraa Iraivan
Porulser Pukazhpurindhaar Maattu
உரை(விளக்கம்)/
Explanation:
இறைவன் என்பதற்குரிய பொருளைப் புரிந்து கொண்டு புகழ் பெற விரும்புகிறவர்கள், நன்மை தீமைகளை ஒரே அளவில் எதிர் கொள்வார்கள்.
The two-fold deeds that spring from darkness shall not adhere to those who delight in the true praise of God
