Normally in September my Quotes of the Week (and some of my most popular Images of Interest) have focused on work. But increasingly in my part of the world there is a sense of massive change in progress. Work as we have known it seems to be going away or fundamentally changing. We may well ask what is the future of work? Where are we now? We live in a current economy of low unemployment. But there’s not much sense of prosperity or well-being in the circles where…
A Glimpse of the Future? In recent weeks my mid-week posts have focused on the contemporary trend among all kinds of industries to increasingly use robotics or other types of automation, rather than hiring extra workers. It’s a phenomenon that impacts all kinds of workers–in ALL socio-economic brackets, except maybe for that seemingly-impervious top 1%–and across widely-varied industries. Today, in the last of this series, I intend to address the topic that originally inspired me to look into it in the…
A Glimpse of the Future? Several recent mid-week posts have addressed aspects of the contemporary and projected issue of automation in the workplace–especially in the area of “machines taking over our jobs.” A growing number of people think that artificially intelligent robots might take over jobs in white-collar professions, moving far beyond the traditional roles of “the three D’s: dangerous, dirty, and dull,” as robotics expert Ryan Calo calls them. Today I want to talk about health care. Exactly what do…
A Glimpse of the Future My mid-week post for the past two weeks has addressed a disruptive technology of major importance in the current global job situation: automation for greater productivity. Robots and automated processes have already moved well beyond doing only what robotics expert Ryan Calo called “the three D’s: dangerous, dirty, and dull.” Last Wednesday I examined some of the ways robots and automation are replacing some types of traditionally minimum-wage or low-wage jobs, sometimes in appropriate ways,…
A Glimpse of the Future Automation and robotics have been making a lot of inroads, lately, and the trend seems unlikely to change. Unless you live in a particular fringe political neighborhood, you’re aware that the vast majority of those jobs have been taken by automation designed to boost productivity. According to one study conducted by Ball State University that looked at manufacturing job losses in the US between the years 2000 and 2010, 87% of those jobs went to…