There’s a Tsunami on the Horizon
Don’t panic. Despite Elon Musk’s predictions that robots will take over the world in a mere ten to twenty years, that jobs will be optional, that money will become irrelevant, it won’t happen that quickly. What makes me think so? It’s not me. It’s history saying otherwise.
You see, this is all about the rate that humans and society can assimilate change. And we are only so good at it. Technology has been progressing faster than our ability to cope for some time now. Existing infrastructure, economies, and social mores haven’t learned how to adapt any faster than 100 years ago. But don’t breathe too big a sigh of relief. That doesn’t mean all these disruptors aren’t going to try.
Still, at the current established pace of adoption, borne out by history, it will only be thirty years before robots and AI permeate our world. Reading this post, Invention, Innovation & the Pace of Adoption, will help you understand why. It still means tremendous change, social disruption and adaptive behaviors are in the works beginning to drive this revolution.
To drive this change into something that affects the core of daily life we will need significant investment in dollars, in education and, most importantly, social norms and the nature of human purpose. The psychology of human purpose – I see that as the big one. How will we adapt? What will we do with our new-found time?
How will we morph from our jobs, our careers, our professions? Will we be able to use those skillsets we spent years learning, or are we starting over? Will our hobbies, our avocations become our purpose? What does that mean? This begins to sound like young and old learning how to constructively use the current notion of ‘retirement.’ Is that what this will be like?
Marginally imaginable. Terrifying and exciting all at once. I think, as usual, the truth, the idea we won’t have jobs or need money will land somewhere short of that concept. Things have a way of finding an equilibrium, a homeostasis that best benefits society.
But there remains the question of the most desirable form of government. Will governments take over and supply all our needs? And what, exactly, are those? Who gets to define that? By itself, it seems a terrifying prospect. Will they determine who gets what? Will the universal income guarantee become reality? Where will your ability to choose, your freedom of self-determination go? Lots of questions, few satisfactory answers. No guarantees.
What does it all mean? Time will tell, but it’s coming. There’s no stopping it. Keep your eyes and ears open friends. We will need to aggressively guard and protect our freedoms. Times of revolution require it.
