Is Your Job Going Extinct?
Nah. My job can’t be automated, right? Right…
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It’s a dreary winter night in London. You’re making your rounds with torch and tub of oil in hand. Cold and wet, but comfortable in the fact that The People need you. How else will they navigate the dark streets and find their way home?
8 more years and you will retire on a pension and hand the job down to your son.
Yes, the life of a lamplighter and his family was a good one.
Right up until the electric lights were installed.
The American Factory
How about all those factory jobs that used to be all over the United States? People working (sometimes around the clock) cranking out shirts, towels, cars, air conditioners, refrigerators, bulldozers, motorcycles, and so on.
It all moved offshore.
I spent last week out in Bloomington, Indiana. A really cool college town with plenty to offer.
The drive from Bloomington to Indianapolis is an eye-opener though.
Beautiful area. Wide open spaces, plenty of room to roam.
There are also what appears to be a lot of food manufacturing “factories”.
I’ll need to do more research into what these places produce, but it smelled great so I’m assuming pre-packed food and maybe frozen dinners or something.
The buildings are gigantic. The parking lots are maybe 10% full.
I’m going to bet that the people that the owners of those cars are the people that maintain, calibrate, and feed the machines.
Automation.
Automation Is Here To Stay
I’m a software developer by trade and have been working professionally in that capacity since 1993.
I’ve heard “programmers are going extinct” since I started working but it hasn’t happened.
Yet.
But could computer programming be completely automated?
Probably.
Particularly the implementation phase. The process of actually nuggin’ through the design and specs and writing code…
