Our future looks brighter than you might expect!

The beginning of a new working year for many people can tend to be fraught with nervousness and trepidation, and with so much negativity being channeled our way through televised and social media platforms, it’s surprising that we’re even able to function at all with the burden of the world’s problems continuously weighing down on us! 

I decided to start my year off by reading a book titled “FACTFULNESS” by Dr. Hans Rosling, which I had read a review on by Bill Gates on a financial blog, where he called it “One of the most important books I’ve ever read – an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world”. That was enough for me to commit to the $21.75 online purchase to get the ball rolling in an attempt to understand what Bill was going on about!

It turns out that when asked simple questions about global trends such as “what percentage of people around the world are living in poverty”, “why the global population is increasing” and “how many girls finish school”, we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong in actual fact that a chimpanzee choosing questions at random will consistently outguess journalists, Nobel laureates and investment bankers!

Here’s a quick quiz from the book to prove my point. Write down, or type the letter for the answer you choose and then add up the correct answers at the end to work out what you got:

Quiz:

1)     In all low-income countries across the world today, how many girls finish primary school?:

A)     20%

B)     40%

C)     60%

2)     Where does the majority of the world population live?:

A)     Low Income Countries

B)     Middle Income Countries

C)     High Income Countries

3)     In the last 20 years, the proportion of the world population living in extreme poverty has:

A)     Almost doubled

B)     Remained more or less the same

C)     Almost halved

4)     What is the life expectancy of the world today?:

A)     50 years

B)     60 years

C)     70 years

5)     There are 2 billion children in the world today, aged 0 to 15 years old. How many children will there be in the year 2100 according to the United Nations?:

A)     4 billion

B)     3 billion

C)     2 billion

6)     The UN predicts that by 2100 the world population will have increased by another 4 billion people. What is the main reason?:

A)     There will be more children (aged below 15)

B)     There will be more adults (aged between 15 and 75)

C)     There will be more old people (aged 75 and older)

7)     How did the number of deaths per year from natural disasters change over the last 100 years?:

A)     More than doubled

B)     Remained the same

C)     Decreased to less than half

8)     How many of the world’s one year old children today have been vaccinated?:

A)     20%

B)     50%

C)     80%

9)     Worldwide, 30 year old men have spent 10 years on average in school. How many years have women of the same age spent in school?:

A)     9 years

B)     6 years

C)     3 years

10)  How many people in the world have some access to electricity?:

A)     20%

B)     50%

C)     80%

Answers:

1)C, 2)B, 3)C, 4)C, 5)C, 6)B, 7)C, 8)A, 9)C, 10)C

Drum Roll…….

Did the numbers surprise you? I bet they did, but please don’t take offence or be too alarmed! The average across the board is staggeringly low and doesn’t discriminate against lesser educated people or people who have less interest in the questions that are put forward. If we use question 3 as an example: “In the last 20 years, the proportion of the world population living in extreme poverty has”. The global average of people getting this answer right (which is almost halved) is only 7%! For such a staggeringly positive statistic, 93% of the population that have been tested over the years in countries like Australia, Norway, Japan, Germany and the US have the opposite and negative understanding of how the world is actually fairing!

It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a world view based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on things that matter most.

Here are a few other examples of good things increasing and bad things decreasing:

And a fantastic short video of Hans Rosling himself illustrating 200 countries development over 200 years by converting 100's of 1000's of data points into an info-graph:

Will robots take over our jobs?

This question generated 92,400,000 search results in 0.46 seconds, so clearly something that is currently topical with people across the board! In keeping with the theme of basing one’s views of the world on facts rather than popular misconception and negative instincts, here are 7 facts about robots:

1)     Rather unfortunately (based on the positive theme that I have been trying to push throughout this article) the word “robot” comes from the Czech word robota, which means “forced labour”. It originally referred to peasants, who were obligated to work for their lords under the Feudal system. Today, the term is used to describe any man-made machine that can perform work and other human tasks.

2)     In “Politics”, written in 350 BCE, Aristotle predicted that automatons could someday replace slaves in performing household tasks. He wrote “There is only one condition in which we can imagine managers not needing subordinates, and Masters not needing slaves. This condition would be that each (inanimate) instrument could do its own work, at the word of command or by intelligent anticipation.”

3)     One of the earliest examples of robotic design was by Leornado Da Vinci, and it was an autonomous car spring system design built in 1478

4)     The world’s first robot company was founded in 1956 by George Devol and Joseph Engelberger. The company was called Unimation, and they introduced the first industrial robot.

5)     One quarter of Japan’s population is over 65, and by 2065, that number is expected to rise to 40%. This has led to the rapid growth of the nursing-care robot market, and the government is spending 1/3 of its budget on the development of care robots that will make life easier for Japan’s elderly.

6)     Nanobots are microscopic robots designed to fit into extremely small spaces to perform a function. The hope is that nanobots can eventually be placed in the blood stream to perform delicate surgical procedures that are too difficult for standard surgery.

7)     Robophobia is an actual anxiety disorder where the person has an irrational fear of robots, drones, robot-like mechanics, or artificial intelligence. Sufferers experience panic attacks triggered by situations such as viewing a robot, being near a robot, or even just talking about robots.

So, there you have some positive and negative facts about robots, but one thing that is clear is that they are here to stay and its only through being prepared for the future and understanding the facts in front of us that we’ll truly be able to tackle the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead of us.

Industry 4.0 readiness:

The future of work is being shaped by a range of new technologies that are blending the digital and physical world, impacting every industry, changing how tasks are done and shifting the skills equation. The resulting disruptions mean we are entering an era of great promise, with the ability to dramatically improve the efficiency of individuals and organizations and unearth new fields of study and employment.

Today, organizations are embracing digital transformation powered by AI, harnessing big data, natural language processing and the Internet of Things (IoT) to transform their businesses and better serve customers and employees. Not only will these extraordinary technologies streamline our everyday routines, but they will also significantly disrupt the employment landscape.

The emergence of new technology often has a positive impact on the economy and creates new jobs. Careers such as social media manager, drone operator and app developer didn’t exist until recently; and today, millions of workers across the globe hold such positions. Accenture estimates that AI could boost labour productivity by up to 40% and double the economic growth rate by 2033. Additionally, PwC predicts that professional, scientific and technical services will see a 16% net increase.

As we approach the golden age of machine learning and AI, it’s clear that many jobs in 2020 and beyond will be in fields that didn’t exist just a decade ago. For instance, an augmented reality developer and autonomous transportation specialist are just a few especially skilled careers that are starting to emerge and will soon be in high demand to fill. New roles may also include data detective, master of edge computing, AI business development manager, cyber city analyst, and the list goes on.

Despite many of today’s alarming headlines inflating concerns over humans losing their jobs to machines, computers simply cannot perform many fundamental, human-oriented tasks involving judgement for problem- solving. In countries like Germany as an example, recent studies have found that the increased installation and usage of robots since 1994 has not had a negative impact of employment figures. It will be a very long time, before computers are capable of flexible thinking and reasoning, an area coined Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

It’s likely that the fourth industrial revolution will favour individuals that can marry strong digital skills with softer skills like empathy and teamwork, which machines are challenged to replicate. Further, as AI and other innovative digital technologies mature, humans will be part of its development and work alongside the technology.

As working with robots becomes commonplace in every industry and workplace, tomorrow’s workforce will need to hone its hard and soft skills. A recent report from McKinsey shows that companies are responding by teaching these skills. Educational institutions must also prepare students for the new types of positions as technological advances continue. Preparing tomorrow’s workforce to have a healthy blend of technical and social skills will be key to creating a well-rounded, agile workplace. Leading-edge technology companies like Siemens, who have had to reinvent and re-skill its workforce on numerous occasions over its 171 year lifespan, are doing this through award winning programs such as its Industry 4.0 Apprenticeship Program which equips today's apprentices to tackle tomorrows jobs that may not necessarily even exist yet.

The world of work faces a significant transition, and there’s never been a more important time to uncover the new disruptive technologies that are reshaping the way we live and work. Now more than ever its important to know, (and more importantly “understand”) the facts in-front of us in order to navigate with confidence this exciting new world that we are moving towards…