What the hell does that mean?
Exactly what it says. Steemit is the future of work.
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The challenge most people have is they cannot envision what is going to happen. This situation only gets compounded when you start to discuss the pace of things happening. Most get stuck in believing that they know what is going on based upon the reference points they have. Unfortunately, this is a 1980s activity. In this era, one really needs to be willing to dive deep into the rabbit hole to grasp what is happening. Since few either have the time or the willingness, we end up with people who are shocked when developments take place.
Fortunately, the future is more predictable than people think. The reason for this is simply because we live in a technological age. Major societal shifts are going to take place as a result of technological advancements.
A couple weeks back I wrote a series of articles explaining how STEEM was going to explode because of the convergence we are starting to see. There are a number of variables that are all going to occur in a short window which will have major impact. This is common in the technology world. Advancements in many areas is required over years which enable the explosion of a new technology to happen, seemingly at once.
I monitor about 15 different technologies, half of which are going to be entering everyday life in the next 5-10 years. Some are already make huge progress like renewable energy, electric vehicles, blockchain, and cloud computing. Over the next decade you can add autonomous vehicles, 3D printing, quantum chemistry, 5G, virtual reality, and drones to the list. Each of these is going to have an enormous impact upon society. Collectively, they are going to knock our socks off.
Part of the fall out of all this is the destruction of jobs. Some want to debate this subject yet they are usually ones who really are using old reference points. Most of the technology titans see what is coming. For this reason, people such as Bill Gates, Richard Branson. Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Andrew Ng all publicly support a basic income. Why do they do this? Because they see the destruction of jobs coming. Heck, it is already happening just people are not aware of it.
Did you ever hear of the Gig Economy? This is the term used to describe the freelance economy that is emerging where people essentially are independent contractors. While this sounds wonderful, the downside is that people are making less money than when they were employed without the benefits. Hence, at least in the US, people are stuck paying absurd amounts of money for medical since they have to be on individual plans. Again, this was a move that was made in the tech arena some time back so the men I just mentioned are well aware of the shortcomings of this.
So what does this all mean?
Basically, it means that society, in general, is ill prepared for what is coming. Organizations such as Morgan Stanley and the World Economic Council (two groups about as far apart on the political spectrum as you can get) who researched this all come up with the same conclusion: jobs are going away and on a large scale. Automation is coming at such a rapid pace that tens of millions of people will be affected each year.
The economic collapse ten years ago gave us a glimpse of what is going to happen. At that time, millions lost their jobs never to return to work again. For some reason we tend to view the unemployed as lazy and not wanting to work when that is usually not the case. Ironic, that some of the laziest people are those with jobs (we all know people who won't get out of their chair and walk down the hall to get an answer to a problem). Anyway, what happened to many of these people? They became a lost generation. A decade later, they are either still struggling or, in the US, were able to get on Social Security, aka forced retirement.
Forever, we espoused the merits of work. "Work hard" we were told like that is something to be proud of. Commercials and advertisement promoted this idea.
Put in a good day's work.
Support your family.
Pull yourself up by the bootstraps.
Get after it.
All espousing the "Protestant" work ethic as admirable. Work was a given in life, even if it wasn't enjoyable. Well, of course it isn't enjoyable, it is work. Enjoyable stuff is called play. And we wonder why people are so miserable.
Bills have to be paid, the only way to do that is work. Family needs feeding, can't lay around here all day.
So what happens when those jobs are gone? How do people identify work?
The truth is we are going to have to redefine what work is. We are rapidly moving past the days when one gets up in the morning, leaves the house, and goes someplace for "work" at some senseless job. The last 20 years saw the creation of many jobs, many of them pretty meaningless. Automation is starting to catch up quickly, meaning many of these jobs will be gone in 5 years. Again, what are all these people going to do?
They will be on Steemit of course!!!!
I say that partially in jest. Steemit might not be the vehicle yet the concept is applicable. Not too far down the road, we are going to see people earning incomes from sources other than traditional job. Work as we know it is going to be passe. Robotics and AI are making strides at exponential rates. We saw the devastation to the blue collar community over the course of a few decades due to robotics and automation. The destruction in the white collar realm will be much quicker because algorithms do not require dexterity. It is far easier to write software than it is to build a robot.
Fortunately, we are witnessing one of the most disruptive technologies ever invented evolve right before our eyes. The blockchain is already changing the nature of commerce. This is leading us to what is being referred to as a "tokenized" world. Under the old model, the few people at the top (and Wall Street) we able to enjoy the riches achieved off the backs of the masses. This concept is rapidly fading away. Blockchain technology is exploding. The Internet is entering all industries and, this time, it is decentralized.
Going down the rabbit hole of cryptocurrencies is a long and winding excursion. However, if you really want to grasp what is happening, dive into researching the blockchain. You will truly be amazed what you find. The world really has no idea what is about to hit it.
And for this reason, our definition of work needs to change.
No longer will the work ethic I talked about suffice. Actually, this is a blessing since for 85% of the people, it is just modern day slavery. Isn't it interesting that the only ones who are afforded "leisure" are the wealthy? When they do it, they are reaping the rewards of success; when the average person tries to have some leisure, he or she is lazy. Even if you win the rat race, you are still a rat.
Steemit and the like being the future of work means that people will earn tokens for doing things they enjoy. At present, others reap the rewards for what we do. No longer. There are projects everyday that are advancing which enable people to move in another direction. While we are at the early stages in this development, I can already see where it is heading. Blockchain dictates that. The tentacles of this technology will penetrate every aspect of commerce. As I said, dive down that rabbit hole and see what people who are a lot smarter than me are saying.
I will close with this. People seem to think that the banksters are the most powerful force in the economy, hence the hardest to take down. While they are a huge part of the economy as a sector and because they provide credit, they still are not the basic essential. The basis of any economy is electricity. Hence, the utility companies are the most powerful and, at the same due to their monopolistic state, the hardest to disrupt. They are centralized, protected, and have the infrastructure. And know what else they have? A tremendous threat from the blockchain decentralizing their entire business model.
If utility companies are in peril from this technology, every industry is. Fortunately, we are on the right side of the curve by embracing blockchain and what is can do now. We are changing the nature of work as with every word we are typing on here since we are laying the foundation for a lot more to follow.
When you go down enough rabbit holes, things start to make sense.
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