robotdoctor2 1 The Upside of the Automation Economy

The Upside of the Automation Economy

robotdoctor2 The Upside of the Automation Economy
People have been shouting from the rooftops for years now that machine learning, AI and job automation are coming, and they will disrupt society on a global level in a way never seen before in the history of the world.

Scary statistics are easy to find. 85% of customer service interactions will be handled by robots. The 3.5 million people who drive cars and trucks for a living will be out of a job. Those will be the first to go, followed soon after by educated professions like legal services. People are predicting surgeons will go the way of the dinosaur by 2050. In the short term, it’s said that 6% of the jobs in our economy are going to be erased just in the next 5 years.

p056945b The Upside of the Automation Economy
Yeah, so, maybe rethink your plans to get a masters in folding laundry

Most people depict a bleak Blade Runner-esque future wherein the owners of the robots doing what had been our jobs consolidate wealth and reap the benefits of all our collective incomes combined. But, I’m not a bleak guy. I’m an optimistic guy.

Blade Runner 890x395 c The Upside of the Automation Economy
At least we’ll have noodles!

So, what will the economy look like after automation? Not to leave you hanging, I believe the educated unemployed of today are paving the way for what the future will look like for the rest of us once 40-50% of the employment opportunities across the globe are gone.

Just like we see in the unemployed and underworked population today, we’ll see a division in the attitudes and drive of folks. Many will demand a universal basic income. Many will stay at home and smoke weed all day. Many will try to pull themselves up by the bootstraps with cunning entrepreneurial endeavors. Many will do all of the above. But above all, people will have a great deal more time. And people with time invest in boredom relievers, pet projects and leisure activities.

unemployedtime The Upside of the Automation Economy
Travel, education, TV and movies, caring for others. Sounds alright to me.

Universal income, in some form, will begin to be put in place in civilized economies worldwide, most likely with barriers to entry, such as participation in training programs or proof of productivity, whether it’s profitable or not. The society of robots will drive productivity through the roof in all the industries we can currently fathom, and scarcity will reduce for many products, especially agriculture and distribution. With lower food and distribution costs, people’s disposable income will increase. Commodities that the unemployed purchase at a disproportionate rate will see demand skyrocket: beer, weed, movie tickets, internet usage, etc.

934633basicincomeuniversalchart The Upside of the Automation Economy
If it’s good enough for Finland, it’s good enough for us!

Jobs will become more and more about fulfilling the leisure and time needs. People who otherwise would have chosen to be creative will pursue that; more and more people will pop up as would-be Youtube stars and bloggers, amateur filmmakers, middling comic book artists. Distribution of those goods will create self-supported industries, just like in books, independent video games and other fields, where the creators are simultaneously the audience and push the best of the best to the top of the heap with their dollars.

People to people interactions will become more valued. With an over-abundance of time and no hope of a job, slowly the societal norm of equating self-worth and success to workforce success will diminish. People will self-organize competitions with regard to their passions and pride and status will stem from those silo’d competitions. People will connect more closely with their family and friends, and seek new experiences.

maslows hierarchy of needs svg The Upside of the Automation Economy
Millions of people will move up a rung on this pyramid from safety to love

One thing to keep in mind is that, while we’ll be punished by the lack of jobs, we’ll also be the benefactors of the increase in productivity. With robots churning out planes at an alarming rate, and driving them day and night, things like travel will become cheaper. The lifestyles of the rich and famous — 5-star restaurants, weekend cross-continental travel, large families and not having to answer to a direct-report superior will trickle down to the masses.

finedining1 The Upside of the Automation Economy
What’s that like, one chicken nugget worth food for $200? I’m gonna eat it in bed off a paper plate

Just to carve something out, in specific, let’s talk about what massively increased demand for travel would mean: airbnb and other housing services will become even more profitable, and travel and cultural support industries will expand — things like local food, theme parks, historical tours, musicians and bars.

components of tourism 4 638 The Upside of the Automation Economy
Watch out, zoos of the world, I’m comin’

As for food, to take another example, with machines producing huge amounts of food to scale, imagine what will happen, just as has happened with every industrial machine with a consumer application: efficiency will continue to grow, and the size will shrink. Forty years ago we couldn’t imagine a personal computer that exceeded the most expensive computers around being available in the pockets of everyone on Earth. Already agricultural technology can be purchased at a consumer level, although efficiency isn’t where it needs to be. Can you imagine buying a box the size of a microwave that grows fresh produce for you with zero maintenance and no cost?

aquasprouts The Upside of the Automation Economy
I can, because it’s already out there. It’s just slow and expensive… for now

In the context of this, let’s talk about some other technologies that are on the horizon:
– 3D Printing. 3D Printing will do to consumer goods what the internet did to music. Toys, tools and furniture will be pirated, downloaded and printed, cutting the need for distribution of anything but colored plastic.

Additionally, one thing that’s already being done with 3D printing is applying the technology to cooking.  By taking the building blocks of nutrition at a chemical level, 3D printers can print basic foodstuffs.  It’s not gourmet — though, who knows what the future holds — but it’s no worse than the other chemically engineered junk food people eat.  So, not only will you not need to visit a toystore for your kids, you won’t need to go to the local convenience store for chips or hot pockets.  Supply of these products will skyrocket, cutting the cost of food worldwide and making a dent in world hunger.  It may not be perfect to be sustaining populations on nutrient-poor hot pockets, but starvation and childhood mortality, arguably the worst problems, will be replaced by nutrition issues later in life that could be treated with supplemental food sources.

hqdefault The Upside of the Automation Economy
Still tastes better than Dominoes

Space travel.  It won’t be you or me, but space travel is coming.  Specifically, low Earth orbit flight in a space ship will be the first consumer level application of space travel.  Essentially what this means is you board a spacecraft that goes up much higher than a traditional plane, and, as a result of that altitude, flight times are drastically reduced.  Some people predict that flights from the USA to China will decrease to under 3 hours.

spaceflight The Upside of the Automation Economy
You can even go OTHER places!

In addition to this, the technology being perfected by SpaceX today — reusable rockets, makes colonization of other planets that much more feasible.  Combined with space engines being worked on like the VASIMR engine, we’ll see a big step forward in the potential for space travel in our lifetimes.  The VASIMR engine, to keep it simple, uses magnets and gas to expel plasma and generate thrust efficiently and smoothly which, in the vacuum of space, compounds upon itself to reach massive top speeds without having to burn tons of expensive fuel.

Pretty exciting right?  Maybe the future won’t be the bleak dystopian hellscape everyone would have you believe.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!

 

Author

  • Ryan Night

    Ryan Night is an ex-game industry producer with over a decade of experience writing guides for RPGs. Previously an early contributor at gamefaqs.com, Ryan has been serving the RPG community with video game guides since 2001. As the owner of Bright Rock Media, Ryan has written over 600 guides for RPGs of all kinds, from Final Fantasy Tactics to Tales of Arise.

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