Davos: Between Man and Robots

Will Robots Fall in Love?

Will robots take over the jobs of man and will artificial intelligence create emotional robots that fall in love, marry and eliminate competition from the human race?  That is currently only possible in the movies and there are dozens of these. The reality is that thousands on jobs are being replaced by robots and this is set to increase to millions.

Today, as the World Economic Forum (WEF) rounded up in Davos, the biggest voices were big on competitiveness, technology, EI into AI, the “Fourth Industrial revolution”.  Man will lose out as will women because new technology will create the jobs of the future.  Many people are not adept in retraining or preparing for changes in the world of work and will be caught unprepared.  The other big topics at icy Davos were the refugee crisis in Europe, ISIS, the Middle East and the developing world.

No less than Pope Francis lent his weight to the conversation that rich businessmen and countries at Davos consider their role in the global inequality by doing more for the poor.  He also cautioned against a looming soullessness:

“In the face of profound and epochal changes, world leaders are challenged to ensure that the coming 'fourth industrial revolution', the result of robotics and scientific and technological innovations, does not lead to the destruction of the human person – to be replaced by a soulless machine.” [1]… the transformation of the earth into an empty garden for the enjoyment of a chosen few” [2]

 Pope Francis voice re-echoes the thoughts of an Oscar Wilde Drama on the perception divide between the priests and the merchants:

How strange a thing this is! The Priest telleth me that the Soul is worth all the gold in the world, and the merchants say that it is not worth a clipped piece of silver. [3] ~Oscar Wilde

The merchants, entrepreneurs and presidents at Davos might spare a wee thought for the humane needs of all, but will be far more focused on profits, self-preservation, efficiency and optimisation.  In the words of David Cameron:  “I want to hardwire competitiveness into the European Union”.

Competitiveness and Efficiency 

Is competitiveness and efficiency equal to cold soulless existence? Will robots and the new super-capitalist economy eliminate the need for man? Did men not complain through the first industrial revolution while Europe first experienced a disruption of feudal economy through mechanisation? The human advancement following the first industrial revolution was unprecedented, this generation can only say that with hindsight.  There are valid concerns that times of technology disruptions such as this demand re-education of everyone. However, those who are set in their ways and fearful of change will resist the inevitable.

Legitimate Fears of Technology

Is a legitimate fear for obsolescence in technology driving people to create utopian illusions of a world where scientists hijack the world, genetically engineer a new specie of better workers, more handsome/beautiful models, far more resilient soldiers? Is there a need to use chromosome bending to eliminate weaker races and sexes? Before you bulk under this ethical dilemma; it is already happening. First with animals like dogs and pigs[4], but the real trophy is the Homo sapiens, the more intelligent, beautiful and stronger kind.

More families are choosing and altering the sex of their children, creating test tube babies, freezing their eggs/sperms and many other invasive medical procedures than anytime in the history of man.

It is only a matter of time before organ harvesting begins in mass quantities from stem cell engineering and human genome bending delivers the cure for cancer, Parkinson and other destructive diseases.

Robots, Machines and AI.

Will robots take over our work and will there be a bloodbath of human beings? Human errors and frailties will increasingly become a sticky point in an efficient and automated world.

 … if the daily trudge through icy Davos does not provide enough shivers, attendees will be told the implications of smart machines going to war. Sir Roger Carr, the chairman of defence giant BAE Systems, will discuss whether robots will become soldiers and generals, along with experts... [5]

In the view of KPMG at the WEF 2016, this is the time for efficiency and change. As infrastructure owners and operators learn and get more comfortable with technological change, fears will be dispensed and IoT, Robotics and Analytics will drive infrastructure efficiency, improve productivity, ensure longer asset life and reduce catastrophic system failures.

 Infrastructure has remained largely untouched by the technology revolution underway around the world. With the exception of the telecoms sector, there has been no fundamental change in the type of infrastructure built compared to 50 years ago – we still use the same assets and we still follow the same basic assumptions.[6]

 Charities like Save the Children and Oxfam decry the increasing spate of how global wealth is concentrated in fewer hands and the 4th industrial revolution will further make the rest of mankind poorer while the already rich get richer.

The individuals that are best suited to reap the benefits of extreme industrial automation will become richer as they hold most of the assets in the fourth industrial revolution. Bank of America Merrill Lynch claims that up to 47% of the US and 35% of the UK workforce will be replaced by robots in 20 years, and revenues in excess of $152Billion will be spent on AI.

Time re-learn and not fear:

There are widespread assertions in the technology world that in fifty years, millions of new kinds of jobs will be created we know nothing about today. No one will miss receptionists and taxi drivers; they will be busy gainfully engaged with other things.

Automation will be just like mechanisation was to the first industrial revolution. There is a shift in the new economy superstructure throwing up new winners and losers, the fourth industrial revolution is the logical path for technology to advance, the workplace simplified and society altered forever.

 Many critiques exist for today’s university degrees, technical education and apprenticeships that prepare people for jobs as a capitalist system of slavery. There are alternative routes to train, to build other kinds of pieces to create a new social order capable of coping with the disruption upon humanity.

 As no one (Person, Organisation or Nation) understands it all, can the human race start the conversations of what a machine-dominated world portends? Ultimately, this is not a conversation about Man and Machines, but rather about how to organise the means of production in a disrupted era. It is a time of learning for all.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-davos-meeting-pope-idUSKCN0UY1XT

[2] https://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2016/dont-be-afraid-to-show-concern-fight-poverty-pope-tells-leaders.cfm

[3] https://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/FisSou.shtml

[4] https://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/28/world/china-mutant-dogs-genetic-engineering/

[5] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/19/world-economic-forum-davos-2016-eight-key-themes-robotics-migration-markets-climate-change-europe-medicine-inequality-cybercrime

[6] https://www.weflive.com/?gclid=CK3s-c6nvcoCFcSVGwodoLEDXA#!/story/70fca180c04111e5a45255590f2b56e6