This week I watched a talk given by Jay Richards relating to his book on the debate surrounding the automation of labor. I have not read his book, but this post is a reflection on his talk.
His point is pretty straight forward. Technology is always advancing, and people are finding new ways to automate work. He used a couple examples I was not expecting to highlight this: driverless cars and trucks. Advancing technology allows cars and trucks to drive themselves, eliminating the need for cabbies and long-haul truck drivers. Those jobs, done now mostly by humans, will be done by machines in the near future, and thus, unavailable to humans. The two strongest viewpoints in the debate on this issue are one where unemployment is rampant and no one can provide for themselves, or no one needs to provide for themselves. Richards thinks both of these views are dystopian, though I somewhat disagree. A if people did not work, they would not simply sit idle and do nothing. They would do things like travel and have experiences, or they would not, but either way, they would not be obligated to any particular thing.
Richards does not think either of the afore-mentioned scenarios will occur. He believes that, while it is likely that even the most difficult robotics challenges will eventually be overcome, we will never run out of jobs. He talked about the information based economy, a concept I will admit I am not very familiar with. This information economy holds all sorts of new jobs that do not currently exist. These new jobs would replace the ones taken over by machines. Here, Richard's argument hinges on the idea that only intelligent life can create information. He says if a person is just a machine, it can be replaced in a doom and gloom future, but he believes humans are unique and are not machines, and therefore cannot be completely replaced by machines. Specifically, this is because people have consciousness.
Richards admits that, although this issue is not that all jobs will be taken over by machines, the rate at which the economy is shifting is an issue. The rapid pace of the transition to an information economy, where conventional jobs are rapidly disappearing is a cause for concern. The answer, Richards claims, is to not panic, but to prepare for the new economy, and to rest assured that there will always be jobs for humans to do.