Currently, I am reading my favorite historian – other than Dr. Bassett of course – Yuval Noah Harari’s 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. In it, he discusses the potential and dangers of multiple forms of technology in the future. According to Harari, information technology and biotechnology will have the greatest impact on the future relationship between humans and technology. Automated technology has historically been great for replacing physical labor, but always lagged behind people when it came to cognitive tasks. We are now witnessing a shift in which technology is becoming better at both mental (I feel wrong using that word to describe computers) and physical tasks. Harari foresees the possibility of a new class of relatively useless people in society without jobs or the necessary skills for the jobs of the future. This new massive group of unemployed people would require a rather revolutionary form of government to ensure that basic human needs continue to be met. Universal basic income just might become a necessity in the future if people have no form of employment.
This scenario reminds me of “Drawing Hands” by Maurits Cornelis Escher, in which we can assume for our discussion that society and technology are determining the future of each other. However, as technology continues to automate basic human functions and labor, the hand which represents society’s determinism of technology continues to fade and give more power to technology’s influence. This is because the more autonomous technology becomes, the less input it requires from humans and therefore the less humans can influence it. But regardless of our influence on technology, it can continue to shape our workforce, our economy, our society, and our lives.
The strongest case against artificial intelligence fully replacing human employment is that robots cannot learn the creativity of musicians and artists. This is where Harari’s discussion of biotechnology presents a rather intriguing contradictive argument. The value that we place in artistic creation is in its ability to evoke emotional connections from its audience. As brain science progresses, we gain insight into the neurochemicals and patterns responsible for each and every emotion that humans experience. Artificial intelligence could potentially reach a point in which its predictive capability is sufficient enough to generate musical or other artistic input with a specific awareness of the emotional output that it will generate. Our better understanding of how the brain functions will lend a helping hand to technology’s displacement of workers. This, to me, seems to reveal a trend for the future – as technology continues to replace the physical and creative employment which humans occupy for financial incentives, more capital and human resource will be available for research which will continue to contribute to an unprecedented rate of scientific discovery in the twenty first century. In conclusion, future developments in technology will revolutionize the format of our society as more people are permanently unemployed than ever before and thus their basic human needs will need to be fulfilled by governments. But as less idealistic jobs are fulfilled by technology, specialized employment such as research and development will be advanced more efficiently than ever before.