The things Andrew McAfee is talking about are very interesting.
As I wrote in my reflection over the articel "The year of the paywall" we live in a technological world that is constantly evolving. McAfee confirmes that thesis and he also says that we have gone from involving people to only use droids.
Something else I thought was interesting was the gap between jobs and working age population which was very big and according to McAfee the gap is only just bigger and bigger. This is the part that scares me a little because what are all humans going to do with their lifes if technology takes over all the jobs? We can´t just sit at home and do nothing and how are going to earn money? I don´t think like McAfee that this i going to reduce poverty but I belive this is going to make the world a harsher place. Sure some jobs are maybe better of being controlled by droids such as truckdriving and cabdriving then there are going to be fewer casualties in traffic but overall I belive droids only going to create more problems instead of taking care of the problems.
I definitely agree on that it is a frightening thought to imagine droids taking over all our jobs. And as you mention: how will people earn money? On the other hand I don't think technology will take over ALL our jobs. I just think they will replace some of them, which will force some people to choose other jobs. And as you also mention I see the example of a reduction of traffic accidents as a very positive result if fewer humans (who tend to be more impulsive than robots) drove cars. Nevertheless I must say I don't think droids will do only good and I totally understand your discussion on how they will make life harsh for some people. And perhaps the result will be increasing gaps? I must say there are both good and bad aspects of this issue but I think it's difficult to stop the technological expansion. And even though there will be negative effects from this I think we have to focus on preventing this and to come up with ideas on how to avoid too large bad outcomes.
SvaraRaderaI am also sharing a bit of your worries about the idea presented in the video about droids taking our future jobs. Indeed the gap is getting bigger between the GDP growth and the labour productivity growth, which presuming big unemployment as a result. But what the video is not saying that we also facing a high dependency ratio, what shows the ratio between the population not in the labour force and those who are in the labour force. Meaning that less and less people will have to support more and more non working people, as the population is ageing globally. Lack of labour might be reality as well. This phenomenon is well documented, and I assume that technological innovations might benefit those efforts, which are done to support the decreasing number of working people. Droids or robots are already used in eldercare, called assistive social robots.
SvaraRaderaI think that as all coins have two sides, this droid issue has also several perspectives. I am for changes in general, this I believe spinning round the wheel of life.
You have an interesting point of view about the future labor society assuming droids take over our lives. I think droids may cause bigger gaps between develop and undeveloped countries so poverty is not going to disappear that easy.
SvaraRaderaI believe that even if droids dominate most jobs, there will be still some jobs like healthcare, education as well as caring for the elderly and children, that all will be seen as occupations that always will require a human touch. "Those areas in which human compassion is important will be less changed than those where compassion is less or not important," said Herb Lin, chief scientist on the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board at the National Academies of Science.
I’m quite optimistic and if we actually face a future on which people are able to dispose more free of their own time and spend less time doing monotone jobs, this will mean that humans are really evolving forwards a whole new and more humanized society with an economic system free from any kind of human exploitation.
Hello Joakim!
SvaraRaderaI thought it was interesting to read your blog post and nice way to combine with your previous blog post.
I just wondering which problems beside unemployment will Droids create and next time please expand your thoughts about that in you’re next blog post.
/Patrik