Technology is at the centre of western culture. Just as petrol powers our cars and electricity powers the utilities in our homes, digital science is dominating how we communicate, work, access our needs, how we play and how we function. And it all develops so fast, the next upgrade takes us all into a seemingly new dimension where we are constantly learning how to use the latest application, device, or robot.
Ok Computer…
Yes, if you are of a certain age you probably still tend to think of robots as crude metallic super brains in the form of a human and with a monotone voice. But so much for science fiction. The robots have arrived and are all around us. The robots of the digital age can be as tiny as a micro-dot as they help us to search on the internet, or odd-looking cumbersome pieces of machinery which take away repetitive jobs for humans in factories. And it is these types of robot we are seeing more and more of.
A New Era for Thailand…
Thailand is one of many countries that is experiencing a sudden burst of new technology. It is not only producing new digital products, but those robots and technological wonders are finding a place on the work floor. To many this creates fear, as they dread that their jobs will be taken by machines. It is almost a second industrial revolution – perhaps more like a digital revolution.
But more and more, it is being realised that gadgets, robots and applications in this capitalist world are only designed, manufactured and bought to compliment the world we live in. As much as some jobs will disappear in the short-term it will herald a new set of jobs to create and support the new technology.
A New Type of Jobs Across the Employment Market
All industries will tend to see the creation of jobs that less than a decade ago did not even exist. For instance, the creation of the internet has led to an enormous demand for information. That data is supplied by writers of text, freelancers, copywriters, writers, SEO writers and internet writers. The newest type of job in this arena is a web content provider. Twenty years ago this kind of job did not exist and was probably beyond the imagination of most people. Even writers. . Before the internet, those peole skiled in writing would have had to hope to get a best selling book to earn any money or qualify as a journalist. Now, thanks to the fact that the internet and digital media has an unending appetite for text, the digital age has created work and allowed people to do work they are skilled in.
Inventing New Jobs…
Many of these new jobs that will be created, will be supporting these robots as they do their work. We may often spend too much time wondering who is servant to who. Are we looking after the robots – or are they serving us? The fact is, the whole thing is much bigger than that. Any manufacturing process is fulfilling a human need. Fundamentally and at a base level, we are just cogs in the capitalist world from which we gain reward too. And in that world, if the general public did not need what was produced, the workers and robots would soon have no work at all. Whether slave to a robot or the other way around does not really matter. Just so long as our production processes provide the products that we all yearn for and the production processes give us the money to live, then that can’t be bad can it?.
So, What Will Those New Jobs in The Future Look Like?
They are going to be at both ends of the scale. We will need the worker who attends the robot while being freed from the repetitive tasks of before. At the other end of the employment arena is the designer, the engineer, the scientist and the analyst.
In the 1990’s it was the website designer who was in high demand. As we go forward further into the 21st century we will be seeing a greater demand for data analysts. Never before have we had so much information buzzing around in hyperspace as we communicate, buy, sell, travel and work. Someone has got to harness that power, segment it and finally, as always, upgrade it. Digital devices and applications need people with logical minds to create code, so it is likely computer jobs and mathematical jobs will be on the rise. Engineers will become more specialised in niche industries such as biochemicals, nanotechnology and robotics.
Human Skills Will Always Be Primary
It is likely jobs warranting specific human skills will stay, but they will be more specialised. For instance, it is unlikely robots will ever be able to replicate the silver tongues of our sales people. But people will need to be more digitally and technologically aware in order to sell the new products that will complement the new age.
In the short-term future, there will need to be an army of senior managers and executives to see companies safely through the new transformations. And these new managers will also need to be specialised in media information and robotics.
With all of these big changes there will need to be people regulating the systems and also people will be needed to train workers on how to do the new jobs which have just been created. These fears that we are leaving our population unemployed seem very short-sighted. It seems we will be looking forward to a future where work is fruitful and also much more exciting.
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