In The Industries of the Future, Alec Ross analyzes current technologies in various subjects such as care, medicine, and coding. Through these different fields, Ross explains how he predicts the world will be changed through our advancing technology. An interesting problem that he mentions is the decline of menial jobs, like delivery or waitressing, could lead to many people being out of jobs. However, I think that he failed to look at the possibility of replacing those jobs with jobs for the maintenance of the technology itself.
If there is a padlet where one can order their food at the table, eliminating the need for a waitress, that would work well for the restaurant until the padlet malfunctions. One could spill their drink on it, a child could hit it, or it could simply wear down. However, there will serve a new line of labor that involves the maintenance of technology. One would need to be able to fix the robot in case of emergency, a field that was never needed until the rise of our dependence on technology and robots.
Automation will never be perfect. There is no possibility of every scenario being accounted for, ultimately suggesting that there will always be machines that do not make mistakes. To account for these, there needs to be people that will work alongside the automation and step in when needed. For example, a delivery truck could be monitored by a driver who would only step in when the truck is malfunctioning. The amount of delivery people may decrease, but they will not be totally replaced by machines, at least not in the near future.
Finally, robots fail to create emotional connections between people. The need for emotional support may rise, creating a new field of work involved with caring emotionally for the elderly rather than physically helping them with everyday tasks. Until robots can be created to artificially match human compassion, there will need to be a way for people to forge emotional connections with others. Ultimately, there will be a need for people to care for others for the foreseeable future and there should be a rise in jobs involved with emotional care.
Although the creation of robots will affect jobs, it will not completely deteriorate the lower working class. There will be new lines of labor that will replace the current ones, but there is no need to fear the rise of technology. As time develops, technology will replace current jobs, the way machines replaced factory work from the industrial age, but there will always be new lines of work. It is the responsibility of the citizens to determine what those lines of work are.
