What I see in different shades of gray, from behind my reading glasses
A very interesting article by Tyler Cowen in the Politico titled “The robots are here“
“A modern textile mill employs only a man and a dog—the man to feed the dog, and the dog to keep the man away from the machines.” That is the world in which we now live.
Ian Bogost’s essay on Hyperemployment has inspired a few more on the subject. Read this one by Mimi Thi Nyugen about how blogging & tweeting are turning academics into the machines that Frederick Taylor described. Against Efficiency Machines. [Could be a hard read]
David Cain chucked a pretty good job to do his own thing. Here’s an interesting view from his first few days.
Because we’re so immersed in our lifestyles, it’s hard to see what individual parts of them are pushing and pulling on our minds.
Put this aside for the weekend if you have to, but read it now if you can. Especially if you are an employee.
I run a solid business, and I don’t think I’m going to run out of employees or customers any time soon, so I’ll spare you the company-spokesman runaround — no, I don’t take responsibility for the state of their lives and I don’t see why I should. Particularly when they don’t take much responsibility for their lives themselves.
This might be fiction, but it might not. Consider it, & make up your mind.
In 1969, publisher John Martin offered to pay Charles Bukowski $100 each and every month for the rest of his life, on one condition: that he quit his job at the post office and become a writer. 49-year-old Bukowski did just that, and in 1971 his first novel, Post Office, was published by Martin’s Black Sparrow Press.
15 years later, Bukowski wrote this letter to Martin and spoke of his joy at having escaped full time employment….
what hurts is the steadily diminishing humanity of those fighting to hold jobs they don’t want but fear the alternative worse. People simply empty out. They are bodies with fearful and obedient minds. The color leaves the eye. The voice becomes ugly. And the body. The hair. The fingernails. The shoes. Everything does.
Contrast the MIT Tech Review article wondering how a mass influx of robots affects human employment, to the International Labour Organisation’s report which warns of social unrest and growing unequality as number of unemployed people worldwide continues to grow.
Imagining the possible future scenarios for middle-class unemployment is a first step to considering ways in which we can preserve our quality of life given the robotic future that will meet us. Without doubt, robots can greatly improve many lives, offering everything from smart prosthetics to home care for the aging. But for humans, the robot future is a mixed bag. [MIT article]
“In advanced economies, unemployment spells have lengthened and more workers are becoming discouraged and dropping out of the labour market altogether. This not only has adverse consequences on individuals and their families, but also can weaken previously stable societies, as opportunities to advance in a good job and improve one’s standard of living become the exception rather than the rule” [ILO report]
Because of automation, outsourcing, and more efficient management practices, the demand for lawyers is down, forcing many lawyers either to drop to lower rungs in the profession’s ladder or to leave the profession entirely for work in types of job which their human capital specialized to the practice of law has less, or maybe no, value to employers.
The employment scene the world over is changing. Older workers are the first to be laid off, & also find it the most hard to find a new job. The tide is turning towards them starting their own local businesses, as this story from the Sydney Morning Herald explores.