How Computers And The Internet Make
Many Of The Old Jobs Meaningless
I have weekly sessions of a program we
call “Hungryminds” at the local high school. I have a bunch of curious, bright,
enthusiastic kids who do not apologise for being a bit ‘nerdy’ in their
interests. We were talking about what
they need to learn and what they would like to do when they grow up.
“I’d like to work at a
cool job. Be a scientist,” one kid volunteered, “Does that mean I need to be
good at math?”
“Yes, I think so. You
will likely be able to contribute more and do real interesting work if you are
comfortable and enjoy working in math,” I replied.
“I am not good at
multiplying fractions!” confessed a student, “I am slow and tend to make many
silly mistakes even in simple addition or subtraction. I am not sure I’ll do
well in math, though I enjoy it and like to learn it. I sometimes struggle to
get things that others seem to easily and quickly.”
“I felt like that too
at about your age,” I said, “I still make mistakes in simple calculations
occasionally. But the important question is – Do you enjoy figuring things out?
Do you enjoy the struggle if you don’t get it straight away?”
“I’d rather type on a
computer than write longhand on paper,” said another kid, “my hand hurts
writing.”
“Mmm… I see. At your age, I used to write about 10 times
or more than what you do now, all on paper. Had to be neat handwriting or we
were penalized. My hands hurt, but were still good. I ruined my hands working
on computers within a short while – within 10 years of starting to use them and
that is permanent damage,” I replied.
That set me thinking.
“Did you know, not so
long ago, there were people in this world, who were good at writing
beautifully, and good at adding numbers - that is all they did and earned a
good living, with mansions and many wives? They were cool jobs. Kings and
governments employed them, treated them with respect and they were looked up to
in society? They were like the multi-millionaires of today then.” I put it to
the kids.
“You mean all they did
was to simply add and subtract and occasionally multiply or divide numbers and
that was their job? Or they simply wrote beautifully whatever someone wanted
them to? And they got paid for it?” these kids were a bit surprised.
“Yes. And guess what
has happened to their jobs now?” I prodded.
“They are all gone!”
This came tinged with surprise.
“Gone where?” I asked,
smiling.
“We don’t need them
anymore!”
“Do you mean we don’t
need to add numbers like that anymore? Or good looking writing anymore? If
anything, I think we use numbers more now and we demand the very best-looking
fonts and ‘writing’ on paper.” I wanted them to think a bit deeper.
“We have calculators
and word-processors now.”
“True. So what used to
be a million dollar job has been replaced by a simple calculator or word
processor. How much does a calculator cost these days? One with eight digits,
the precision of that order was unheard of in those olden days. How much does a
word-processor cost?” I pushed further.
“I got a cheap
calculator for about nine dollars on sale!” exclaimed one kid.
“Word processors are
everywhere, even on my iPod or mobile phone. They are free,” suggested another.
“No, nothing is free.
It cost someone money to make the word processor, everyone involved got paid to
do it. Sure, the cost to buy a copy is so small, that it can be covered under
something else and made to look free,” I said, “But we know we can get one for
50 dollars, say?”
“Sure, we can get a
spreadsheet, database and a lot more for 50 dollars,” the students agreed.
“So, what other cool
jobs will NOT be gone that way?” I pressed on.
“Engineers, chemists,
physicists, mathematicians,” said one.
“What kind of work
would they be doing that will not be automated soon?” I asked.
“One that requires a
lot of knowledge…” started one and trailed off as he himself could see what was
happening,” Oh, actually the computers these days can store and access more
information and knowledge than we can keep in our heads!”
“Bulls-eye!!” I was thrilled to hear this.
“What are the
professions where computers can do better than us?” I asked them.
They thought silently.
I decided to lead them.
“Just about anything
that can be explained, put down in the form of clear instructions – whether it
is knowledge in mathematics, physics, chemistry, even biology, medical or technical diagnosis, anything that
requires accurate recollection can, has been and is continually being automated.
This has happened to the point that, what some people spent years of their life
learning can be brought up in a few seconds from anywhere across the world, in
seconds and more accurately than humanly possible. Once we paid millions to get
this knowledge from a human, now it costs a fraction of a cent to access the
same knowledge that is just information. A whole lot of brilliant human work,
done systematically once, no longer needs the human to do it again. It can be
captured and replicated billions of times. We no longer need the human for that
ever again. Mathematicians, engineers, draughts men, librarians, chemists,
accountants, bus drivers, even pilots of today – almost all of their work can
be automated and replaced really cheaply,” I observed.
“So, why are we
learning all this? What can we do so that we will not be out of a job when we
grow up?” asked an ambitious teenager, who I knew had a dream of owning a
Bugatti Veyron car that costs about a million dollars to buy and more to make.
He was worried.
“Good question. What do
you think we can do that machines cannot yet do as well and that we will likely
be doing better for a long time?”
They all thought for a
while and then came one good answer –“Think.”
“Of course, I would add
‘Sing, dance, compose music, cook, tell a joke, write a poem and be kind’. We
will always need humans for that, I think,”
I could not resist the pun.
As the bell went off, we all walked out
and the bunch of nerdy kids were
hopefully motivated to sing, dance, laugh and joke and be nice to each
other. It is most important they do that and they will all hopefully have cool
jobs in the future.
Copyright (c) Kannan Narayanamurthy 2012
All rights reserved
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