Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Who Will Lead the Way in the New Era of Automation

In case you have not had a chance to see my short scenario describing The Robot Minimum Wage Plan (RMWP) please take a minute to read it to get up to speed on the concepts we are discussing here.

Last time we talked about defining the problem and decided that indeed there is one. Since then I have seen several news stories about robots and jobs that seem to agree with that:

Robots could take over 38% of U.S. jobs within about 15 years, report says

U.S. workers face higher risk of being replaced by robots. Here's why

Robots, not immigrants, are taking American jobs

And a few more:


So far we're seeing lots of stories and not many ideas for solutions. Unfortunately the current government does not even see the problem yet:

Mnuchin on robots taking US jobs: 'It's not even on our radar screen ... 50-100 more years' away 

Not a good indication for workers in the US. There is definitely a disconnect.

Here is a relevant comment received last week:


Gideon A. MarkenMarch 22, 2017 at 6:05 PM
Your comments regarding the McDonald's example reminds me two points in today's current environment - President Trump's son can't find people to pick grapes in his winery and is requesting work visas for individuals from Mexico to do the job. Coal miners in Kentucky say they are disappointed that the President hasn't yet taken actions to put them back to work but they are certain he will.

The rust belt and environmentally damaging jobs won't/can't return just as some won't work at McDonald's short-term jobs because they are beneath them.

This isn't a political observation at all but it points to a trend where there will be a growing gap between the haves and the have nots and at some point we have to do more than just encourage people to enrich their education/expertise or they will be left even further behind. There is a tremendous amount of work that has to be done to bring our national infrastructure - transportation, communications, services - globally that has to be done and much of it admittedly will have to be manual labor intensive providing a bridge work/income flow for perhaps the next 10 years. That can/should be enough of a buffer to raise the income and educational levels of segments of society in the short term.

This will give the governmental and educational sectors some time to develop/implement programs to enable people to be equipped to handle system support positions, data management/movement jobs and skills that will be needed tomorrow.

As you noted our transition from an agrarian society and activities involved in growing/harvesting food shifted people to communities of people who ultimately evolved to data processors/handlers/movers. The key is not whether robots are good/bad for business/society but how do we prepare and move into the next phase of humanity.

Programs will have to begin - coordinated effort of government/business/education - to view what workloads will be best carried out by augmented intelligence and robots and what will the human - reasoning - factor be in this new environment. The challenge is it won't happen by accident and planning for displacement is also not a popular agenda...until it becomes a crisis!


Thanks Gideon, you hit the nail on the head. The RMWP is one idea of a program that could work. There are many other ideas out there to examine. Bottom line though ... we need to pay attention to this issue before it becomes a crisis as Gideon says.

Who Will Lead the Way in the New Era of Automation?

Based on what the current administration in the US saying, let's assume we are out of the running for the time being. Maybe if we are lucky the quote from Winston Churchill will hold true - "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else." 

Most likely countries like Finland, Norway, Switzerland and Canada will take the lead and in fact there have already been a few experiments in the direction of Guaranteed Income for ALL. OK, I can hear the screams of socialism from here :-)  Well, lets face the facts. Modern socialist countries are nice places to be humans. Just look at any of the multiple articles about the best places in the world to live and they are always near the top.

But, I don't think the pure socialist solution is a good option either, so, rather than going for a virtual handout paid for by taxes, why not incorporate a capitalist element to help pay for it and spread around the success. In fact the RMWP should enhance the lifestyles of society by encouraging advances in technology and automation. 

China is another country that may advance this idea as their middle class grows and the economy settles into one where competition for jobs becomes more important. It would be fairly simple for China to take over the ownership and production of robot systems and rent them to industry under a RMWP type system as Gene suggested a few posts ago

India is big into software and service for business and they export much of that to other countries via call centers etc. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is the application of technology that allows employees in a company to configure ‘software robots’ to capture and interpret existing applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses and communicating with other digital systems. This may be something that impacts India and forces some changes in this industry. How they handle that is beyond my knowledge of their politics but the question is relevant to the future.

It's a big world out there and I'm sure there are other places that are already talking about these issues as well. As technology advances it's interesting to note that new companies (or countries in this case) will have an advantage over the established ones in that they do not have to tear down existing infrastructure or embedded capital structures in order to implement new strategies and systems. I think it will only take a few successful adventures into the realm of robotic taxation in order to start the ball rolling in other societies. I can hardly wait :-)
Help us out if you have insight on this topic from the point of view of another country or this one (US) by commenting below.

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 Now, here is another comment received last month:

NidsiTales / NidsipoetryMarch 23, 2017 at 12:32 AM
The human vs. machine debate raises head time and again. It is an inclusive discussion and instead of us pondering on the versus aspect, we must look at the complementing aspect. Neither can survive or thrive without the other, so lets stop pitting one against the other.

Moving on to the minimum wage discussion - the premise that organizations may be penalized for improving efficiency and productivity is contrary to the principle of business. The answer lies in upskilling and improving employability of the workforce. Giving them handouts is both insulting and crippling them for future.


If you look at the RMWP scenario you will see that I don't talk about human vs machine at all. In fact I am looking for a system whereby humans can benefit greatly from the work of machines while still advancing technology and human ingenuity. What I do believe though is that we can't just ignore the sector of society that is unwilling or unable to "Upskill". For that reason I propose a minimum wage for all and offer increased living standards for those who seek that via careers in a modern society.

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OK, that's it for me today. Thanks for listening and please let me know what you think.

Please take a moment and comment with your impressions (just click on the comment link below). This is meant to be a brainstorming session so your opinions are what will keep it going.


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