The "specter" of automation

"Here is the truth on many of the jobs that men and women have cut their teeth on for so many years. Some are now headed for the dustbin of history."

The secret is starting to get out. In know, it made good talking points on the campaign trail. "I will bring our jobs back from Mexico, from China, from India, from wherever!" Guess what? Ain't gonna happen that way. Here is the truth on many of the jobs that men and women have cut their teeth on for so many years. Some are now headed for the dustbin of history.

Is this some nefarious plot by a secret organization to gut our economy? Nope. This is called that simple term known simply as "progress". Society as a whole is getting smarter and better. More and more today, we are inventing things that make things. Wherever there is a job or a task which is repetitive in nature, that job becomes a candidate for automation. And I am talking about a lot of jobs. 

For example, the Boston Consulting Group estimates by 2025, 25% of all jobs in the United States workplace will be done by some kind of robotics or smart software. Oxford University has done a similar study in the United Kingdom. In that study, 35% of all jobs in the U.K. will be replaced by automation in twenty years.

What does that mean? If President Elect Trump serves for two full terms, by the time the next President will be sworn in, it will be 2025. In the 8 years that a President Trump would be in office, thousands of jobs which exist now, will have gone the way of automation. And if our country is not ready to adapt to these changing times, we could end up with over 100 million people out of the workforce.

Where is the real future in the workplace? First off, people who know how to invent things which are sorely needed. People who are trained in medical research. So cancer, heart disease, muscular diseases, blood diseases and so on can finally be conquered. People who understand nanotechnology. More and more things are becoming more complex yet continue to shrink in size. And people who know how to make things which make things. Yes, I am taking about robotics and smart software.

What I am trying to say is this - we need not fear the future, but we do need to understand it.
If a young person wants to go to college and get a four year degree in Anthropology, there probably will not be a job for him or her upon graduation. For young people, planning a future today means looking out over the horizon. Trying to figure out if your skill set will still be valid in 10 years. 

Here is something interesting. Shortly after I got out of college, I was in a meeting conducted by a futurist who was employed by the company I worked for. He talked about the future of technology as well as the future of work. Many of the things I mentioned in this short article, are similar to what he talked about 45 years ago. He was so spot on many of them, it is almost scary. 

What do we do for futurists today? They are all over the place. Many, many good articles on the internet, penned by reputable people. People who can see the future. And the future is? We can look at it either as a specter or as our path forward. Plus, we need to not only understand the future, but also embrace it. Why? Because the future will be here tomorrow.