📑 Where will automation take us by 2033?

Bryan Alexander takes a different look at the future. Rather than making a particular prediction, he provides ten possibilities. This is a useful provocation for starting a conversation about today.

A) Significant unemployment and underemployment will result as automation fails to create new jobs to succeed the ones it replaces.

B) New types of jobs appears in response to emerging technologies and practices, as they did through most of the Industrial Revolutions.

C) Humans increasingly feel unease or panic at being rendered obsolete.  This manifests in various cultural and political forms.

D) Income and wealth inequality grows immensely, as businesses involved in automation generate and accrete enormous financial power.

E) Very little change will occur, because AI is overhyped and robotics are too limited in practical application, at least in this timeframe of a mere 15 years.

F) Some form of universal basic income will be implemented.

G) A data-based surveillance dystopia is installed, grounded in ubiquitous technology and guided by governments and/or business.

H) A new arms race breaks out between nations to see who has the best AI.

I) A major backlash emerges against automation for various reasons, leading to a major social step back from AI and robotics.

J) A very pleasant time will result, when we don’t have to work so much, our basic needs are met, and we are freer to develop ourselves.