The Benefits & Productivity Enhancements Of Technology
Technology is a boon to mankind. Productivity increases equate with higher wages and more efficient allocation of the inputs of production. As an electrician, I have seen my wages increase nearly double since 1995. Not all of this increase has been due to inflation. The advent of battery tools, cell phones, Computer Aided Drafting, tablets and laser-measuring and line tools have made us far more productive than in 1995. In fact, construction has been one of the earliest beneficiaries of the tech revolution but there are barriers to more integration (Barbosa, et.al, 2017).
What happens if robots take jobs? A report from the Brookings Institute, highlights some of the more recent innovations in robotics and other more autonomous machines, that require less, if nearly no additional labor. These range from the self-driving car that is frequently in the news today, to robotic stock retrievers and health care machines. I believe that the machines that have the highest potential to take over the jobs of people are obviously those that perform repetitive tasks that have a high rate of similar outcome that require little intuition and those that perform functions that would be dangerous to humans.
An example of this is the medical robots that can take vitals and determine health and act to prescribe a solution. This innovation could save people a significant amount of money over traditional doctoring. The schooling required for physicians could be forgone and programmers could take the place of medical educators. Another example of job displacing robotic technology that could be readily accepted is autonomous vehicles and drones that keep people out of harms range.
Unmanned Arial Vehicles
3 and crawling robots that can return video images or retrieve objects are mainstream examples of such advancements. Other technologies show promise but may become unpopular or miss the mark. It is my personal opinion that autonomous trucks and cars may see many setbacks and may turn out to be unacceptable, as humans are hurt or killed by errors that are made when programming cannot ‘think’. I thik these technologies are important in more specialized devices such as those that entered the Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2017 (Fackler, 2017). Augmented reality is another of the technologies I see as useful for entertainment but not so much for meaningful productive efforts. Perhaps in simulations providing practice in dangerous procedures they hold some promise, but it is doubtful they will unemploy many.
All of these technologies have impacted my life for the better. I have experienced nearly all of them from 3D printing to autonomous moving things. Medical sensors are things I have in a first aid kit that monitor O2 levels, among other things, and provide me feedback. I have no complaints with any of these technologies and each has made me more productive and useful. For those who have a job that is repetitive or can efficiently be done by robots, I would say take a lesson from the pages of the auto industry and keep your wages reasonable (so that robots remain too expensive) or get an education in things that require more individualized solutions that are difficult to provide by algorithm.
References:
- Barbosa, F., et.al, (2017, February). Reinventing construction: the route to higher productivity.McKinsey global institute. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Industries/Capital%20Projects%20and%20Infrastructure/Our%20Insights/Reinventing%20construction%20through%20a%20productivity%20revolution/MGI-Reinventing-Construction-Executive-summary.ashx
- Fackler, M., (2017, 19 November). Six years after Fukushima, robots finally find reactors’melted uranium fuel. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/19/science/japan-fukushima-nuclear-meltdown-fuel.html
- West, D., (2015, October). What happens if robots take the jobs? The impact of emerging technologies on employment and public policy. Center for technology innovation at Brookings. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/robotwork.pdf
