Kevin Kelly on Robots & Future Jobs
“ Some mathematical proofs have become so complex only computers are able to rigorously check every step. […] The proofs are not understandable by humans alone so it is necessary to trust a cascade of algorithms, and this demands new skills in knowing when to trust these creations. Dealing with alien intelligence will require similar skills, and a further broadening of ourselves.”
Kevin Kelly, executive founder of Wired Magazine, thus highlights the changing nature of careers. To be fair, the change has been slowly creeping up on us; the industrial revolution brought machine work to replace laborious tasks in the 18th century. Electricity and steam were to that era what technology will be to ours.
But how, exactly, does that impact the jobs of tomorrow?
Over a decade ago, in 2005 to be precise, the Internet welcomed its billionth user. That same year, three times Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas Friedman pointed to the Internet as a key factor in the global democratization of knowledge.
Except Friedman could have used a nuance: he was, in truth, speaking about the democratization of information.
To all those worried about technology making humans obsolete, this nuance is key.
For centuries, information and knowledge were bound together. With the advent of technology, however, the distinction emerges.
Information is a mere collection of data. And while it was a rare commodity prior to Gutenberg, data is becoming increasingly accessible and, in its raw, unprocessed form, quasi-worthless. With initiatives such as the semantic web, net neutrality, internet.org and Airtel Zero, there is no doubt that the democratization of information will soon be achieved.
Knowledge, in contrast, will be the newly sought commodity. Knowledge is what binds, and makes sense of disparate information. Knowledge is the ability to create something novel. Knowledge is infinite. And, similar to a video game, each layer of knowledge acquired by humanity unlocks the next level.
The natural progression of technology, therefore, is not to replace humans. It is, rather, to allow humans to unlock higher levels of knowledge. In some ways, technology has made past jobs obsolete, through automation. On the flip side, it has allowed a job like mine to exist. If tomorrow, my job and your job were mastered by robots, it would free us to think of the next big challenge. “ Humans are for inventing new kinds of intelligences that biology could not evolve. Our job is to make machines that think different — to create alien intelligences.” (Kevin Kelly)
Under this light, it becomes relevant to re-examine the skills we pass down through our education system; the ones we spend effort acquiring as professionals; the kind of programming we air on traditional media, and produce on social platforms. For we live in a society that still places a premium on information, and we have just reached the turning point.
