Automation, the doom of our society ?
Preparing For The Future
What the media ignores
Many experts around the world have proposed what we should do in the future and what we should we doing. Instead of crossing our arms and thinking what should we do, we are already taking steps to prepare for the future, here is a summary of the plans for the future.
Universal Basic Income
This idea,has been proposed by many. Seen as a socialist idea. Is in fact one of the ideas that is being pushed. In the future, when computers become even more complex and capable of doing advanced jobs, Many will be left without a job and the time it will require for those without a job to acquire a skill which will allow them to work might be long. So this Universal Basic Income is a proposal to cushion those without a job. It will function as a cushion to allow them to acquire the skills and prepare themselves to get into a job, it is not meant to be socialism, but to set the bottom of the social/economic ladder and allow society to keep working. This idea is being supported by Bill Gates and Elon Musk and sparked quite the debate.
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Tax the Robots
This idea, proposed by Bill Gates, means to tax automation and robots and use that money to fund education and training so those who lose their jobs are able to provide for other humans and develop more skills to apply on jobs where automation will not reach. Though an great idea, it will face many adversaries but this solution takes into consideration that the education, training and support that those who will lose their jobs to automation will require capital investment, and this investment will come from the Tax that Bill Gates proposes.
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Regulations and rules for computer automation.
While many are pushing for computer automation, as any industry and research. It needs to have limitations and regulations. Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking and Bill gates all mention that in the subject of Artificial Intelligence there should be regulations and limitations. As computers are more capable than humans in terms of speed and memory, many fear what A.I would be capable of if left unchecked. So many are proposing and building a set of regulations for their research. Elon Musk recently talked about AI regulation and points out the issues of not regulating AI.
Investing in Education and Nurture Critical Thinking..
Computer automation still haves its flaws and limits, and Many universities around the world are already adding courses and objectives to their career paths as to give students a more general set of skills which will help them when facing computer automation. They are also promoting and nourishing the Critical Thinking Skill which is one skill that machines will lack in the future.
Other factor that needs to be highlighted is that College Level education is still important, machines are not smart enough yet to do the same job as an engineer , a scientist, a psychologist or even a professor. And even if we managed to make them intelligent enough to do those jobs they are still unable to have interpersonal skills as the humans. Right now universities around the world have on their curriculum not only the core for each major, but also a broad set of skills designed to allow their students to communicate with others humans in a professional setting, this is a skill which machines lack right now and will lack in the future.
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In India in 2017, there was a pilot program for universal basic income , with the participation of more than 80 experts and politicians they tested the program, with little spending from the government budget and obtaining the funds thru taxes they were able to test the pilot program this year with success, and there are also other pilot programs at the start of this decade. We can say that Universal Basic Income is not hard to implement and might be the first step to prepare for computer automation. Universal Basic Income can provide those without a job the means to obtain a better education and skill set to qualify for a job.