Industrial Revolution: Do We Work In The Future?

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“Humans have always used tools, but because of the recent advancements in technology, we are beginning to have machines that can augment us in interesting ways.” Prof. Erik Brynjolfsson, MIT (USA). The Fourth Industrial Revolution has taken its roots, whether we embrace it or not. Genetic mutations, nanotechnology, biotechnology, robotic automation and the sharing economy are all building upon the artificial intelligence platform, paving way to an all-encompassing industrial revolution which we have never experienced. Concurrent to such a technological revolution are a set of broader socio-economic, geopolitical and demographic drivers of change, each interacting in multiple directions and intensifying one another. While some jobs are threatened …show more content…

However, the act of resisting new inventions is in itself also a failure. The vision for our future should be a progressive one, one which does not cling on to work just for the avoidance of workless-ness. It is only in the ability to do so can we dream jobs that will be bolder and more fulfilling than those which are displaced by an automated future. Our worry that we will irritate these robots and they will dominate and wipe us out is something for Hollywood to worry about. More important than the question of ‘how do we work in the future” is to ask ourselves where do we fit in in this automated future before its arrival. In a world without work, how do we distribute resources? Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. We already know that the automated future entails possibilities of eliminating many types of jobs. But what we need to know urgently is how do we find meaning without work? Patterns of consumption indirectly provides the necessity to work, but it does not confer meaning upon it and it requires proactive adaptation by corporations, governments and individuals in order to find our

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