It appears that politicians, unions, and educational institutions are encouraging people to fear the future by pointing out that jobs will be lost to automation, robotics, and expert systems.
But, the truth is that the entire history of the industrial revolution is filled with similar cases and yet we still survive.
Consider the impact of the cotton gin and automated looms and their effect on textile workers. Consider the steam shovel and its impact on miners and contractors. Consider the computer and consider its impact on rows of clerical workers. Consider CAD/CAM (Computer-Aided Design/Computer-Aided Manufacturing) and its impact on draftsmen and model-makers.
And yet, we survive.
““It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” — Steve Jobs.
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” –Henry Ford
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The key to understanding this type of fear lies in considering the words of those deeply involved in the industrial revolution.
People do not anticipate or see radical change or opportunities beyond an extension of what they already know.
And most of all, people cannot imagine a world where they are forced to think that today may not be the same as yesterday and tomorrow may not be the same as today.
Have faith in both human nature and the capitalist system to provide the answers. But, most of all, prepare for the coming change by future-proofing yourself and becoming more resilient. For some individuals, this means eliminating crushing debt and building multiple independent sources of income. For other individuals, it means learning new skills that are transferable to newly created enterprises. And yet for other individuals, it means reducing the clutter of daily living and become more mobile to take advantage of opportunities outside of your immediate environment.