Future work for my children
I have two children. I say that as an introduction so that you have some context as to why I write this article. I as a parent want to help guide them with regards to their futures, but as a technologist too, I see a problem looming for them that has not existed before. The days of "you can be anything you want" have gone; many highly qualified people cannot get the jobs they studied for, the jobs they see as their calling. So what roles in society can my children play, and by the time they reach the job market how much will things have changed from today? And as a parent how do I help guide them?
Education is becoming less affordable and the world of work is changing through technology and automation, we are likely to end up with another layer of haves and have nots. Instead of have money and not have money, there will be have money, have work and have money, have work and not have money and not have money. There will be a great amount of society, not yet quantifiable, who will need to be supported.
If I assume that they will be supported, I cannot see that we will want a mass underclass that has nothing, they will need money, housing, food, activity, entertainment and social interaction. The people not in the supported society will need the supported to consume. Assuming that the supported have the government (who else) supplied funds they will be able to consume, how much freedom they have to make consumption choices is difficult to contemplate, but I assume it would be somewhat controlled. If I further assume that the government supplied funds will be controlled towards keeping the supported happy and well, that suggests there are two growth industries fitness and entertainment.
Physical fitness splits into two, people who need programs because they are not working and they need to fill the time, and not become a burden on society and people who need programs because they are short on time, they are working and we need them to stay fit to keep working. There will also be a major shift in the need for mental fitness as well as physical fitness. We will have a group of people that maybe separated from the working population, for example will the working population socialise with the non-working? That may or may not happen, but as human beings we need to have a sense of worth, and for those that are not working how do they find their sense of worth? Will they need mental support to assist them? It is likely that this will be a service in demand.
It seems to be a sensible hypothesis that wellness or fitness, physical and mental will be a growth "industry". To be a have or a have not in this industry means running a fitness service or being a fitness worker. There is opportunity here.
All of our population will need to be entertained, regardless of whether they are supported or unsupported. I assume that the unsupported haves working or not will have enough money to create choice, whereas the have nots will be "fed" entertainment. They may have enough money to selectively buy entertainment, but this would be "home" entertainment.
For those with enough money for choice and those with small amounts to spend on entertainment, there will be continued growth in home gaming, virtual reality, augmented reality and virtual worlds. For those haves with much more disposable income the physical thrill seeking will continue to push boundaries.
The young that have skills in entertainment technologies (sound, vision and gaming) will have roles and jobs, their decision to make is whether they run their own business and aspire to become haves with money, or be haves with work and money. Any ambition needs to be tempered with how they have learned their skills, they will be in debt from their education.
My pitch to my children is to direct their educational efforts towards these industries, fitness and entertainment. While I can see robotics or automation performing the end delivery in entertainment I cannot see how they would perform the design and build without the intuition, hunches or gut feel that something sounds right, looks right or will be entertaining.
Designing fitness regimes for people could be mechanical or robotic, but to keep people interested, engaged and active again takes intuition, responding to the person in the moment, altering the program or exercise to suit their abilities during the work out. The conversation or nuances of behaviour is too subjective for a robot trainer (at least as I write this), physiology can be programmed, but we don't all look like the diagrams.
I don’t aim to be right or wrong with this article, just expressing my thoughts on how I see things now and how it could affect my children. Feel free to debate.
Dear savedmetwice,
Thank you for your insights. I find your points very interesting, agree with a lot of them and am glad that I'm working in entertainment. :-)
I also see the problem of not enough work for everybody because of automation. And besides it concerning mostly jobs no one likes to do (cleaning, working on the conveyer belt etc.) in the future there will be mass-unemployment and mass-unselffullfilling (is that a word?).
One solution I try to fight for is the unconditional minimal income. Everybody, working or non-working, would get it and would be able to dedicate their life to what they want, studying, writing poetry, exploring, helping others without having the fear to lose their home or not having enough to eat. It would create a completely new society!
Dear @Lillliputt,
Thank you for your feedback.
I am not sure mass-unselffullfilling is a word - but it does capture what you mean. I think that a universal income is inevitable, but something that should be avoided by individuals if they can. Once the govt wholly controls your pay, your self-worth or selffullfilling will plummet, after all why bother trying to be better if you can't get more for your efforts. Plus if the govt controls your wealth and your ability to spend surely they will want something back for their investment - labour of some description and probably menial. That's a very pessimistic view and at conflict with yours, I hope there will be balance.
Dear savedmetwice,
I definetely don't have a pessimistic view of the unconditional income, because I define the workings of it differently than you. For example:
Even if the government pays you an income just for being a citizen, you can earn additional money by working. It just adds up. So there will be people who don't "work" (meaning for money), but everybody can. The very good thing is, you don't have to, but can invest yourself by studying and educating yourself, which is very much needed in our fast developing world.
Totally agree with you on most, its even worst when the politicians negotiate to remove opportunities from our children. Voting for brexit was for disgruntled people because politicians had mis managed the country. Speaking with people during the last general election, you feel the gap created where the government was in its own globe. It now means our children shall not enjoy the free movement and freedom to learn and find jobs in europe.