Rage against the machine! How to stop robots from stealing our jobs.

Perhaps in the future posited by movies like The Terminator, the robots did not take over with weapons, instead they took our jobs?

On that topic there is a great interview in scientific american with Erik Brynjolfsson which you can read here:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/yes-robots-are-coming-for-our-jobs-now-what/

In the interview he talks about his research into how technology is separating productivity improvements from employment increases.  This is a problem that is growing more apparent as our computers and robots get more effective but fewer people are being employed.

Erik spends a lot of time talking about the problem, one analogy that stood out was this one:

"Think of someone who writes software. You can take that talent or luck and replicate it a million times. And while the person who created it does very, very well, the people who previously did that job are less important or maybe not even necessary. The example that I gave in my TED talk was TurboTax. You’ve got a human tax preparer being replaced by a $39 piece of software. It makes the pie bigger in the sense that you create more value with less effort, but most of that value goes to a very small group of people."

However he does not have much to offer in terms of solutions. He does say that one of our problems is that unlike other revolutions (like the agricultural or industrial), we have been unable to create new industries to have people work in. That might be somewhat true, but the increase in demand for it workers over the last few decades shows that new industries are being created, its just they demand less total employees as previous revolutions require.

In terms of solutions we can bring to the table, there are a few, but not easy ones. Perhaps we need to identify a new understanding of work and careers, one that encourages and supports part time work? As less total employees are required to do a job, maybe employment is increased by making part time work a viable career path?  Many households have one full time worker (40 hours) and one part time worker (20 hours), perhaps the future is two part time workers (30 hours each)?  This might require more government assistance to offset reduced or altered income, or it just may need the cost of living to continue to drop to make that feasible lifestyle choice.

Another option is to encourage greater investment in industries and sectors that require human thought or action.  This could mean encouraging personal service industries like health or therapy to expand by lowering taxes or restrictions on them. Additionally, it may be wise to provide assistance to labor intensive industries and services. It may not make sense to require sales tax on hair cuts, if the goal is to lower total unemployment, for example. This might be difficult to do though for governments facing deficits.

These are just a few ideas on how we can cope with the rising robot revolution. Unfortunately we will need more ideas, and soon, to ensure we are not all terminated!

Posted in: technology