Less human beings, more machines

By Ashley:

You must be familiar with automated checkout at supermarkets, bank cash machines, staff-free ticket offices, and online study courses, now, there are driverless cars and pilotless airplanes.

Google began the project of a car without driver in 2010, and expects to release it in five years from now. Although Google’s driverless car is a subject of controversy, many major automobile companies in the world are willing to pursue this concept, and work on their own prototype.  

Last month, in April, the first private pilotless airplane with 16 seats flew in British airspace. A pilot did the take-off and the landing, but for the rest of the flight, the plane flew autonomously. Autopilot mode has existed for many years. However, soon, there will be no need for pilots anymore, and the plane will take-off and land by itself.

In addition to the raise of unemployment for five years, the insignificant creation of jobs and well-paid jobs due to the financial crisis, and countries’ private debt, economics and computer scientists worry about the fact that the aforementioned new technologies will replace the roles of people in many industrial and service jobs. Many people will lose their jobs. Another subject of worry is a future in which only educated and computer-literate elite will have good jobs and full-time employment. Many companies follow this trend, but they do not employ as much as car companies. It can result in half of the adult population without a work.

According to some scientists, the real challenge of our time is not the development of China, but new technology. The robotization and automation, which will facilitate our daily lives in a significant way, are inevitable. As a result, some jobs will disappear while others will be emphasized.

Others scientists believe in “the Great Stagnation” which occurs when there is no new worthwhile technologies for doers to automate, and transform, announcing the end of the “great general purpose technologies” that have changed the world.

Nobody can predict the future, but we know that two-thirds of our current consumption did not exist twenty-five years ago. There are great chances that the next generation will have the same experience. Everything changes, becomes obsolete, and renews at a different pace. Wages and working possibilities are endangered by extreme inequality. People will constantly open up, innovate, and reinvent themselves. 

Source:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/05/25/world/driverless-cars-pilotless-planes-will-there-be-jobs-left-for-us/#.UaBJcEDKBhR
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/05/13/britain-tests-pilotless-passenger-plan
http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21576224-one-day-every-car-may-come-invisible-chauffeur-look-no-hands