We always find ways to increase one’s productivity. Albeit, using human forces alone is low productivity. That’s why human created tools. It’s easier to kill an animal with spear than with bare hands. Wells are preferably located close to where one needs water, otherwise it would take a long time to reach there; but it’d be better with piped water — you don’t need to move the water yourself. In the past, you probably want to hire a “fanner” to help fan yourself — someone that holds the fan and continuously fan you. Nowadays, you could buy a mechanical fan that blows at you.
Ultimately, the invention of tools are to boost productivity. Yet, when something boost productivity, it means someone losing their job. Something that previously requires human intervention now don’t need anymore, making that “someone” obsolete. Therefore, that “someone” should find another job that’s in a different sector after his job is replaced by machine. That creates some scary thoughts to push against these productivity tools.
Example, factories allows processing something systematically, with minimal human intervention. Previously, these may be the job of humans, now replaced by machines. Controlling something could be automated by computers; previously, a human is tasked to do the job, probably. More recently, AI greatly increase productivity, rendering some tasks obsolete to current human jobs. Nevertheless, we’ll fight against it, not because of the negativity that may come with it (it does have these negativity, one don’t deny), but because it threaten to lose one’s job. Most people are short-sighted, they won’t really care much about its negativity as long as it didn’t affect them, but losing one’s job is affecting them, so they’d join in the fight.
Nonetheless, if changes don’t happen, productivity stall, and the world would never improve as quickly as it would be. Being more productive means gather more wealth; means getting more done with less effort. Little would deny productivity. Changes will certainly happen, and no one can stop if it brings productivity; unless the negative consequences are so large that no one’s acceptable.
Therefore, one can only learn what these new tools can’t do, begin to learn in these sectors, and work alongside these tools. Think of them more as friends than enemies: and let them help oneself perform one’s job more effectively, make oneself more productive. Perhaps, then, one’d keep one’s job, except it got reformulated.
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You might be interested in this article: https://www.bridgewater.com/research-and-insights/assessing-the-implications-of-a-productivity-miracle
Originally published at https://read.cash.
