Accretional Automation, Revolutionary Consequences Since the dawn of civilized society, all but a select few of us have defined ourselves almost wholly around our occupation of choice. Notice that anytime you are introduced to a person of working age you’ll almost assuredly ask them what they do for a living right after you ask them their name. So much of our self-definition and identity is wrapped up in our need to work a steady job to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table, and we center so much of our lives around the trappings and specifics of our chosen trade. Given this, the looming tide of mass automation of labor presents quite the challenge on the horizon for social theorists and policy specialists. If current estimates
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In the Obama Administration’s report on artificial intelligence and automation’s impact of the economy, the advisory board explained that “about 60 percent of the estimated relative demand shift favoring college educated labor from 1970 to 1998 can be explained by the reduced labor input needed for routine manual tasks and the increased labor input for non-routine cognitive tasks, which tended to be more concentrated in higher-skilled occupations.” With the ease of replacing manual labor, modern economies have placed a high premium on a college education and the critical thinking and management skills that come with it. Technological innovation has come a long way, but artificial intelligence still doesn’t hold a candle to human thought. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for manual labor, which can be entirely supplanted by mechanical means. Even service jobs, long thought to be a bulwark against job displacement, are increasingly being automated. Self-service checkouts and restaurant attendant tablets present a real shakeup to thousands of jobs in the food industry. Furthermore, the White House report details that “displaced workers’ earnings recover only slowly and incompletely. Even ten or more years later, the earnings of these workers remain depressed by 10 percent or more relative to their previous wages.” This is where the real danger of automation comes in. Attached to their occupation for so long only to be fired without as much as a second notice when technological advancement renders them unnecessary, workers often cannot or do not want to adapt to a new profession. “These results suggest that for many displaced workers there appears to be a deterioration in their ability either to match their current skills to, or retrain for, new, in-demand
In the Obama Administration’s report on artificial intelligence and automation’s impact of the economy, the advisory board explained that “about 60 percent of the estimated relative demand shift favoring college educated labor from 1970 to 1998 can be explained by the reduced labor input needed for routine manual tasks and the increased labor input for non-routine cognitive tasks, which tended to be more concentrated in higher-skilled occupations.” With the ease of replacing manual labor, modern economies have placed a high premium on a college education and the critical thinking and management skills that come with it. Technological innovation has come a long way, but artificial intelligence still doesn’t hold a candle to human thought. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for manual labor, which can be entirely supplanted by mechanical means. Even service jobs, long thought to be a bulwark against job displacement, are increasingly being automated. Self-service checkouts and restaurant attendant tablets present a real shakeup to thousands of jobs in the food industry. Furthermore, the White House report details that “displaced workers’ earnings recover only slowly and incompletely. Even ten or more years later, the earnings of these workers remain depressed by 10 percent or more relative to their previous wages.” This is where the real danger of automation comes in. Attached to their occupation for so long only to be fired without as much as a second notice when technological advancement renders them unnecessary, workers often cannot or do not want to adapt to a new profession. “These results suggest that for many displaced workers there appears to be a deterioration in their ability either to match their current skills to, or retrain for, new, in-demand