How is technology changing society and will it be for the
better? Science fiction writers have long predicted a society of robotic
automation, in the utopian version humans are freed from daily chores by a
multitude of robots, the darker versions including nightmares of robots taking
control from humans. From the cartoon Jetsons to 2001 A Space Odyssey thru
Bladerunner (Do Electric Sheep Sleep) to the animated Wall-e movie it is a recurring
theme.
Fortunately it does not look like robots are going to
challenge our authority anytime soon, however something just as compelling may
be happening right under our noses according to Brain Arthur a visiting
researcher at Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC). Arthur posits that there is a
vast and rapidly growing ‘second economy’ that is totally automated (without
human interference unless it breaks), he give the example of freight
transactions where electronic systems linking companies and government
departments across multiple countries share data and communicate with each
other unseen and untouched by humans.
Arthur raises concerns that this second economy is not only
growing rapidly but is the source of the majority of current productivity
growth. The implications of this are quite serious, if growth does not create
more jobs, and automation continues to eliminate jobs, humans may well find
they have more leisure time while computers do the work but it may be a poor
unemployed leisure time. This would give a whole new meaning to the term
‘digital’ divide which refers to the digital ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’, the
current use of this term relates to access to technology, however it could
equally refer to those who have lost the ability to earn an income due to
technology driven restructuring. What do you think?
Brian Arthurs article can be found in the McKinsey Quarterly
2011 Number 11.
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