The worst technology that will ever be

In an article published on the Baltimore Sun, legendary economist Jeremy Rifkin outlines the risks of technical innovation. “The hard reality - Rifkin writes - is that the global economy is in the midst of a transformation as significant as the Industrial Revolution. We are in the early stages of a shift from ‘mass labor’ to highly skilled ‘elite labor,’ accompanied by increasing automation in the production of goods and the delivery of services.”

Rifkin continues, warning that “in the United States alone, as many as 90 million jobs in a labor force of 124 million are potentially vulnerable to displacement”.

Powerful words. Also not really surprising, as they capture many of the fears triggered by the recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence, along with a warning about the potential impact on labor. The catch, though, is that the article in question wasn’t published in 2023; in fact it wasn’t even published in this century, as it appeared on the Baltimore Sun on September 4th, 1995.

At the time Rifkin, and everybody else, did not even know what Generative AI was, as the term would have been invented decades years later. In that long op-ed - under the title “Will There be a Job for Me in the New Information Age?” - Rifkin was referring to the disruption caused by the growing reach of the “cyberspace”, which at the time was a very popular synonym for what today is just the mainstream internet. Rifkin was passionately highlighting the consequence humanity would experience because of the social revolution enabled by computer automation and the wide diffusion of the “information highways” (you gotta love all these vintage analogies for the early internet).

A species resistant to change

We humans are creatures of habit, we tend to get used to the way things are. We create routines and comfort zones that provide us with a sense of security and familiarity. Change can disrupt these routines and create uncertainty, discomfort, anxiety, and even fear.

Change can be seen as a threat to our sense of identity and self-worth; being forced to adapt to new circumstances or confront unfamiliar challenges can make us feel vulnerable and insecure. In psychology, resistance to change is considered an integral part of people's survival instinct, a natural tendency to prefer what is known and therefore safe, to what is unknown and could therefore prove harmful. When faced with a change that is deemed potentially dangerous, people adopt attitudes that consciously, or much more often unconsciously, hinder any significant major disruption. This can be particularly true when change is not an intentional choice we make, but it is forced upon us by external factors, especially unexpected events such as economic, social, or technological transitions.

The rise of intelligent machines

The rise of artificial intelligence is arguably one of the most significant, and disruptive, technological advancements in decades. While some people have embraced this technology with open arms, many more are still hesitant to accept it, and the change it bears.

AI is a complex technology, most people do not fully understand how it works, it is growing at an extremely rapid pace, and it often promises disruptive changes in many human labor activities. It’s a perfect recipe to trigger our innate fear of the unknown, which is a powerful motivator, as we fear AI will disrupt our lives and change things in ways they we not want or, more importantly, we don’t understand; the fear that change may prove harmful leads people to prefer established attitudes, actions, and ways of working.

But let’s go back to Rifkin’s prediction, and look back at it 28 years later. Modern-day United States is for sure a very different country from 1995’s, it’s far from perfect, but definitely not what Rifkin thought it would become either. The cyberspace, the internet, and computer automation, surely have displaced a lot of jobs: there are way less people in assembly lines or newsrooms, but millions are in much higher-paying jobs that did not exist 20, 15, or even 10 years ago.

Today’s United States are a more complicated, harder to read, and far from perfect country; but at the same time they are a better place to be, at least according to pretty much every quantitative economic, demographic and civic, socioeconomic, health, security & safety, environment & energy indicators we have available.

The worst that will ever be

Used correctly, technology is a formidable tool of empowerment for humanity, and so far it has delivered on this promise.

Artificial intelligence is still in its infancy, like every innovation it follows a maturity vector of evolution that only goes upwards: a continuous improvement that makes today’s iteration the worst that will ever be. The future is bright, thanks to technology: not sure if we will ever see hoverboards though, but we finally have commercial jet packs (well, sort of…), so there’s still hope…

Disclaimer

What's above represents my personal views and not the opinion or policy of my employers or any other company, organization or individual I can be associated with.

The facts expressed here belong to everybody, the quoted sections, stetements, and imagery belong to their respective authors, the opinions only to me: the distinction is yours to draw...