T
he last episode of "Parts Unknown" on CNN with Anthony Bourdain on Shanghai contained a discussion between Anthony Bourdain and Professor Zhou Lin, Economist and current Dean of the College of Economics and Management at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Professor Lin was educated in American universities and has taught at Yale, Duke, and Arizona State. During the discussion Professor Lin raises an interesting point at the end of the conversation.
He says "the difficulty, nowadays, is" ... that ... "the technology is so advanced ".. that ... "we don't really need that many people to do things that many people used to do," ... with the population being ... "7 billion people, the world probably doesn't need that many people working anymore... So the question is what should human beings do? You know, how can you let them not do anything and then still live a good life? I don't know. It's going to be a big issue" ... that the ... "whole world" ... will have to face"
Do we all become poets, artists, philosophers? Vegetate? Dream? If all of the worlds needs and wants can be fulfilled by a few because of technology then how does the rest of the population occupy itself? Or how does it access what the few has produced? If they must buy or trade for it, then how do they get something to trade or buy with? What then is the currency? Or is everything distributed based on some other system? What system?
he last episode of "Parts Unknown" on CNN with Anthony Bourdain on Shanghai contained a discussion between Anthony Bourdain and Professor Zhou Lin, Economist and current Dean of the College of Economics and Management at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Professor Lin was educated in American universities and has taught at Yale, Duke, and Arizona State. During the discussion Professor Lin raises an interesting point at the end of the conversation.
He says "the difficulty, nowadays, is" ... that ... "the technology is so advanced ".. that ... "we don't really need that many people to do things that many people used to do," ... with the population being ... "7 billion people, the world probably doesn't need that many people working anymore... So the question is what should human beings do? You know, how can you let them not do anything and then still live a good life? I don't know. It's going to be a big issue" ... that the ... "whole world" ... will have to face"
Do we all become poets, artists, philosophers? Vegetate? Dream? If all of the worlds needs and wants can be fulfilled by a few because of technology then how does the rest of the population occupy itself? Or how does it access what the few has produced? If they must buy or trade for it, then how do they get something to trade or buy with? What then is the currency? Or is everything distributed based on some other system? What system?
1 comment:
Ideally, when many of the lower skilled, repetitive lower wage jobs become extinct throughout the world, people may finally have the opportunity to enjoy life, spend time with family, write books, etc. In other words, to become "Human Beings," instead of what we are now which are "Human Doings."
However, before we start planning our dreams to become poets and artists, advanced technology will require the creation of new kinds of jobs. There will be a need to heavily invest in education in the areas of Computer Science, robotics, engineering and management.
However, not everyone has the desire or capability of becoming computer programmers and engineers. There will always be a need for jobs that require human interaction that machines will never be able to replace.
Post a Comment