Back in 2004 I wrote
a piece that was inspired by my viewing of the movie "I, Robot" (one of my top sci-fi movies in terms of futurism). I wrote then:
Specifically I was struck by the displacement of humans in many jobs. I, robot takes place in 2035, when yours truly will be in his 60's. at that time it appears that robots are rubbish collectors, babysitters, cooks, janitors even bartenders. My question was, what happened to the people who usually do these jobs? It is presumed that those persons are enjoying life, free from the mundane work of life and can go about their business. The problem with that assumption is that the movie clearly shows that there are classes of people. Smith's character rides in an Audi. The CEO of USR is clearly well off and Smith's character, Audi notwithstanding seems to live in a less than upscale apartment relative to the female lead. It is quite clear that some people made more than others and lived different lives. Therefore there still must be some means of making money. As we know, all throughout human history, where there is class there are those who are deprived. Clearly, everyone cannot be an accountant or a programmer and clearly even if they could, there would not be enough jobs to go around. So where are these people in this 2035 Chicago? Is there some huge welfare state going on?
Today I read in the NY Times about the push to automate factories in both the US, China and elsewhere:
Yet in the state-of-the-art plant, where the assembly line runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, there are robots everywhere and few human workers. All of the heavy lifting and almost all of the precise work is done by robots that string together solar cells and seal them under glass. The human workers do things like trimming excess material, threading wires and screwing a handful of fasteners into a simple frame for each panel.
China already has a problem in which it graduates a huge number of college graduates but does not have the capacity to employ them. Many of these persons go to work in factories. As these factories are increasingly automated this critical pressure relief valve will no longer be available and unemployment will be rampant along with the social issues that follow.
On the other side, businesses without customers cannot long stay in business. People must have currency in order to purchase goods (and services). Clearly the top dollars are not being paid to those connecting fasteners and screwing in screws. As I suggested in 2004, unless there is a massive welfare state in which citizens are paid to "pursue happiness" rather than "employment" the automation of the workplace will lead to a lot of problems.
