One of the favorite shows this pessimist likes to watch is CBS News Sunday Morning. It is usually a nice mix of positive and uplifting stories. This morning they did a story on automation. They showed a company that has already drove a driver-less truck across Colorado. They sat in the cab of a long haul semi-truck that was being driven by a robot cruising down the interstate. They showed the Amazon store in Seattle that you can go into, shop, and never encounter a store worker.
Sound cool?
Today we have 3.5 million truckers, 600,000 Uber drivers, 180,000 taxi drivers. We have millions of grocery store workers. Automation and AI is here today. It is estimated that close to 50% of our jobs could be lost to automation by 2025.
[source]
We also have millions of people working in part time retail jobs trying to make ends meet. These were jobs back when I was a young boy that were full-time and allowed a person to work and support an entire family. What happened?
In 1870 50% of people worked in agriculture. By 1900 this number was 33%. 20% by 1950. Today 2% work in agriculture. [source] Ironically there is a trend back to small farming operations.
Manufacturing and mining jobs have been largely been replaced by automation.
When computers came on the scene there was great concern that jobs would be lost. Word processing led to the end of typewriters. Streaming video has replaced video stores that did not have a long lifespan to begin with. But, since the advent of the computer millions of jobs and many new occupations have arrived.
It is hard to predict the macro movements of our civilization. Change is inevitable.
What is certain is that change impacts our lives. What is a 45 year old that has spent the bulk of their life as a driver supposed to do if their job is lost to automation? Throughout the rust belt we can find communities that have adapted and changed with the times and our thriving. We can find other towns that have not been able to adapt where a large percentage of people live in poverty and despair.
Society is "the aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community." Our society is seemingly becoming more and more survival of the fittest. The response to all this change is what we have typically done throughout history... try to redirect and blame those that do not look like us. Redirect and deflect blame where it does not belong.
What is the true measure of a society? What is the true measure of a person?
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