Traveler’s Reflection: Technology and the future of work lies in our hands - and in our minds, Ready2Board, The Official Athens Airport Magazine, Black & White Issue, Executive Mast-air- class, Dec 2021 - Feb 2022, pp. 93-94.
This article is written with ‘ text dictation’ to the PC, at
the lounge of the Frankfurt airport, between two flights. When I began to write
articles, forty years ago, I typed them with my typewriter. I handed the
articles in an envelope to the editor
and the editor retyped them in
order to publish them. Nowadays, the article will be sent via email.
My typewriter is now a decorative item. The smart PC knows how
to spell, but it has limits. It does not spare
me from correcting mistakes eg in similar words or from having to cut
the words that the PC recorded by mistake – eg when I had to answer an incoming
call or when I thanked the lady that took my tray and my glass from the table
where I was sitting.
The writing process has changed. The travelling process and
the traveling related tasks have also changed. Ticket issuing, ticket payments,
check in and all related processes have also changed. As well as travel costs. Today,
aircraft are much different than those that transported us 40-50 years
ago. They (still) continue to have
pilots, but the technology of piloting tasks has changed. These are small examples
of how within half a century, many jobs and tasks have changes in terms of
content, while many others have been eliminated and many new have been created.
The cause of these changes is the evolution of technology.
Technology has changed and along with technology the content of tasks in social
and economic activity, has also changed. A century ago, commercial flights, aircrafts
and airports did not exist. It was technology that allowed the creation and
multiplication of air travel related jobs.
And even though the people that are traveling via air is just
a small part of the earth population, (although air travelers are much more
that they were 30, 50 or 100 years ago), the evolution of technology and the
ways that it affects the world of work, affects everyone.
Similarly, only a small part of the earth’s population has
access to technologies that allow ‘ text dictation’ . 80% οf the population in Europe has access
to the internet, while only 20% of the
population of the less developed countries has access to the web and only a
small part of the world knows how to read and to write.
If the aircraft flies over Europe, then the largest
percentage of each population, knows how to read and write. If it flies over Asia
or Africa, a very big percentage of the population does not even have the basic
writing and reading skills. Therefore,
technological evolution cannot be utilized. What if technological evolution (eg
the cell phone) could actually contribute to literacy? It could.
Technology, as the result of the work of humans, cannot be
utilized by everyone in this planet. We
are now in the second decade of the 4th industrial revolution, while others are
still navigating the 3rd, 2nd
or 1st industrial
revolution and there are several locations and populations in the planet that
have not event joined the 1st industrial revolution. Time and space
relevance and relativity are important.
However, the 4th industrial revolution along with
globalization affect – and will change – work for almost everyone. This will apply
not only to the jobs and the positions
of modern economies but also to the rest
(60%) of the jobs in the planet that lie in the informal sector, that
counts more that 2 billion employees.
Educational and cultural limitations set boundaries and limits
to the potential of technology and to its utilization as well as to the
creation of new enterprises and to new jobs and positions. The challenge for
technology is that it contributes to overcoming these limitations. Both for the
60% and for the 40% of the population that lies in a much better position.
As I see, the ‘ artificial intelligence’ of the PC and of its
software, is doing very well with the article. All I need is some spelling
corrections. Best wishes for the journey towards the Future of Work and to the
Jobs of the Future! Most of the professions of 2030 and 2040, have not been
created, or named yet…
