Submitted by Pachamama
We will anticipate that in the coming elections both the DLP and the BLP; both Fruendel Stuart and Mia Mottley; both sets of party apparati; both sets of pundits and the ones in between, as they pretend to be; the hordes of platform speakers; will have some central focus on jobs.
And of course they will be seeking to tell better lies about jobs than they perceived opponents. One faction of the political duopoly will be contending that they will increase employment in tourism and international business services to a higher level than the other, largely by tinkering with the existing frameworks.
The other, will rejoin by insisting that they will get jobs back up to the highest levels by engaging in an extensive infrastructure development program. These could include house building, road development, hotel construction and so on. One of them may even suggest self-employment as the way to go. Another may even revert to the failed policy of increasing the ranks of the voluntarily idol on the Cave Hill Campus of the UWI. As if that ‘industrial base’ has not produced enough useless widgets in previous iterations.
In all this the truth about jobs will remain fleeting. Even in the American elections. So far, all sides and we mean all sides, including Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein have ignored the fact that worker participation rates will NEVER return to historical highs as a result of the current and galloping fourth industrial revolution.
The employment highs which were obtained during the first three (3) stages of the industrial revolution (circa 1780’s – 1969) a period which includes the fullest employment ever, chattel slavery, are gone forever. Humans will never again be called upon to build water, steam and mechanical production equipment – the first industrial revolution.
The era of mass production systems, electrical systems and a sophisticated division of labour – the second industrial revolution, of the 1870’s and onward, are too costly and inefficient. When we add the information revolution, from the 1969 period onward, which gave us improved electronics, information technology (IT) and the automation of production, there was only one small step left for the humanoid to render herself extinct.
That universal consciousness of extinction, in this Aquarian Age, has led us to the point where we are prepared to kill every living creature on earth ………..or mars, on the one hand. And we continue to exterminate thousands of organisms annually. But on the other hand, we are leaving no stone unturned to give ‘life’ to that which will render ourselves as the dodo birds of the 21st century – the rise of the machine.
This industrial revolution of cyber and physical systems are the main causal reasons why no government anywhere on earth can do anything about real jobs, living wages, the consolidation of resources into fewer and fewer hands. Look around you and see all the functions that are being automated. Few humans answer business phones anymore, almost all financial transactions could be completed without human intervention, and even where there are humans providing these services they maybe in far flung places working for pennies on the dollar – outsourcing. Much of the earlier industrial functions have already been taken over by intelligent machines. This fourth industrial phase is set to exacerbate human retrenchment.
What is more, the best studies we’ve seen suggest that up 80-90 percent of service jobs will be performed by robots within 30 years. We are talking about jobs like hotel waiters, truck drivers, taxi drivers, maids, bus drivers, clerical functions, teachers and many others. Machines already have the capacity to perform a wider range of functions humans dislike because of their repetitive or laborious nature.
Our relationships with smart phones are particularly worrisome.
These intelligent ‘devices’ are interfering with an essential ingredient which makes us human – personal interaction. People, young people especially, are devolving into beings which look at screens all the time. People who are losing an ability to appreciate great works of art, for example. They will tell you that a computer could do better more efficiently. We see these evolved creatures in museums, next to great collections, and more interested in texting than being a human. A human with an innate connection to beauty.
We even have copiers able to produce 3-D objects. So artificial body parts will be produced by machines – no need for human to human transplantation. And we may be able to do this without the need for anti-rejection drugs by using the DNA of the recipient. Machines have been said to be able to communicate with other machines thus caused a reporter’s car to be used as a weapon, to kill that reporter, we hear. UPS are testing package delivery using drones, right on your door step. Seems to us that machines will be the only ones fully employed!
In 30 years all vehicles used for transport will be able to performs those functions without human intervention. Currently, many companies are in races to see which ones will be able to develop the technology to control these emerging no human system. For us it represents total genocide – at the worst. Others are straining their brains to find some articulations as to how we may still be relevant to the future we are working at breakneck speed to create.
The biggest problem is the absence of any involvement by Barbados and others in helping the population to understand what this is to mean for survival. Let’s say that the preponderance of thinking, and most people don’t know for sure but are estimating, is right. Then we’ll need to ask some serious questions as to how we may make a difference. Is the humanoid worth saving? Can she save herself? Or is this a more understandable demise of that human than the other fictional estimations, as written? Why would our new masters, the machines, need useless eaters around de place?
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.