Humans in work might be history as Robots take your jobs

Traditional Human jobs are at risk of becoming history -

Thanks to the rise of the robots, taking your jobs!

So, how long do you think your job is going to last? or your career? how long before you are obsolete and replaced by automation? Maybe not very long. Why?

The jobs market has changed much since the 2009 crash

Around 2009, I worked for a business that was being sold. I decided it might be a safe option to look around for something in case I was not required by the new owner. So, I started to keep an eye on the jobs market and continued this over the years on a casual basis.

In 2016 I was forced out of a job and went on the jobs market full time. I spent the whole of 2916 looking for work. Even with a good CV with 20+ years of experience in marketing, sales, business development and graphic design, no one was interested much.

Of around 350 jobs I applied for I had around 20 interviews. I even touted my CV to local companies offering free work placement experience, I sent out 100 and received no interest. So what was the reason?

The rise of the Robots - Some of  Amazon's fleet of robots

In a word, automation. Since 2009, robots and automation have made big in-roads into the workplace and the bad news is that these silent raptors are not done yet feeding on our jobs.

The warehouse of the near future - all robot, no human

 You may think your job is safe or your career choice wise. Think again. Are you an Accountant? Accounts clerk? Marketeer or sales person? You may think your job is safe, but you should prepare yourself for obsolescence.

All of the above jobs are rapidly moving towards robots only.

Proxy living is the future-  coupled to open source and big data

The future of our lives is that proxy living will take over our lives, that is robots and automation handling all our menial junk like paying our bills, sifting the sales and marketer's cyber guff that will be silently sent to your proxy assistant to deal with.

Your fridge will be part of the proxy chain -

it will report data on your food, to your proxy

With big data, your fridge of the future will analyse your food consumption, what goes bad, what you buy -  all this is valuable data to a supermarket or producer. So, your proxy will identify your eating 'likes' and will plan and shop for you, on-line and without you having to do it.

Big data  fed 'proxies' will be a new network of cyber citizens -

a digital network of cyber humans

Your shopping receipt is big data rich. What you buy and who you are is important data. As jobs silently disappear to automation, what about us humans?

The truth is that we will find that there is less and less work for us to do. As such, we will have to be funded to live by the government, by a Basic Income Payment system. This is affordable, but the government isn't even looking at this yet. This is madness. Mass unemployment is coming thanks to automation and many of us will be displaced from work.

Every technology scientist of note says the same thing -

we need a Basic Income payment system and soon 

So, who is safe in a job? Those that have transferable skills, those that can do jobs that robots currently can't.

You think I'm joking? I am not. I have been out of work before but it has never taken this long to get back into the jobs market. Some jobs I saw had over 100 applicants and this was for some low level admin job.

Many employers are trying to use the 'least cost option' model when recruiting, it ends up with the job coming up time and again because the person isn't suitable or leaves. Even job agencies privately agree with this situation.

Robot to robot interaction is the future

So what is the future? It will be that we will lose out jobwise to robots and automation, half the UK jobs will disappear at least. The government will have to pay out a Basic Income payment, to anyone over 16.

The current DWP benefits model is no longer fit for purpose, it needs replacing with a streamlined and simple system as I have set out.

This will allow those who want to start a business the financial safety net and create new wealth by buying and selling of new products or services, those in work will have extra money to spend, stimulating the economy, those pensioners will have money to spend, the people on benefits will have money too and can try a new risk free business venture.

This could all be a reality if it wasn't for the blinkered amateurs who cannot see what the future is. They will become subsumed by this cybernetic tsunami, the rise of the robots is happening, not tomorrow, it is already fluid and building.

The future could be good if we plan, not sit around denying it.

Get a job they say... 35% of all jobs will go in the next 20 years

So it goes....

So, you think I am being unrealistic?

The great Norbert Weiner, the father of modern cybernetics knew early on after WW2 that the computer was going to be the one machine that would result in the loss of human jobs.

As early as 1961, General Motors had installed robotic units on the production line, this had the effect of not only taking human jobs but also once the low-skilled worker was replaced by an automated 'fetch and carry' operation, this would knock on to elsewhere in the workplace.

The jobs market is shrinking and more so since the 2009 crash. The 'useless' regarded degrees such as Golf Course Management and the like have created a wash of graduates who will not find work easily.

The future human worker will need transferable skills and skills that a robot finds difficult. A 4 year old child has more dexterity than current robots, what the human can do easily, the robot can't and vice versa.

The modern employer seeks the least cost option, typically employing young, inexperienced and cheap labour. They look to pay the least on offer from a job application advert they post, but it is a false economy.

Having been studying the job market since the 2009 rupture, I have noticed two things, firstly that the 'least cost option' has led to another phenomena, that of the same job coming up about 1-3 months later because the post holder was not the right choice.

The employment agencies acknowledge that the employers want the least cost option, so think about that when you build a CV, how will you conceal your age if you're worried that may be a discriminatory factor?

Another things I notice from reading the job descriptions is the 'job and a half' syndrome, which tends to dovetail with my earlier point. Rather than create a job that is doable and would take one person and create a second part-time job in conjunction with that job, the employer tries to ram a 'job and a half' onto the one person.

This far from solves the job remit situation of employing staff to do a job in a company, what it does is foster mediocrity, with people too busy to really do the job properly, leading to stress and the person either going off on long-term sick leave or quitting.

The creeping tide of cybernation is coming, but it is not all bad news. The US Treasury has run an investigation into social security and they report that a base payment of 10 thousand USD to every person of working age and over would be cheaper than paying social security.

For us, this could be a good thing. The future could be that we buy or lease a robot that works elsewhere on our behalf and we charge the company and get paid for the robot working. Then we can do the worthwhile things we should not being slaves to society!