The top 3 human jobs humanoids cannot steal
Well, people have been comparing computers to humans for decades. Yet, it’s perfectly clear that the two operate in entirely different ways. I guess it was Peter Thiel who commented that the future of technology consists not in substituting human abilities but complementing them.
And that’s because the kinds of things computers are really good at are often diametrically opposed to the ones humans can handle with remarkable ease. With that said, below are three types of jobs that are agreed upon by many experts to be automation-proof.
1. Pattern recognition jobs
Consider the following.
In 2012, one of Google’s supercomputers made headlines when, after scanning 10 million thumbnails of YouTube videos, it learned to identify a cat with 75% accuracy.
Masters, Blake. Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future (Kindle Locations 1505–1506). Ebury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Now compare that feat with that of an average four-year-old who can do the same with 100% accuracy after scanning just one thumbnail.
Now the reason why ‘pattern recognition’ is special boils down to the operational difference between man and machine. If anything, the neurons in a human brain act like parallel computers. And when billions of neurons and trillions of synapses fire together to perform a quadrillion operations in a single second, the result is very different from what a computer can do with its serial logic.
Computers outsmart us by millions of times when it comes to purely repetitive tasks that can be broken down into a few lines of code. But then, it must come as a surprise that the people who will remain shielded and perhaps even benefit from the AI revolution will be garbage collectors, gardeners, and plumbers. Because as Michio Kaku explores in his book Physics of the Future, these are the jobs which present a unique situation each time.
Likewise, police officers and construction workers will remain safe since every crime situation is different and every construction project requires its unique blueprint, tools, and instructions.
2. Common sense jobs
If pattern recognition is where computers fail the test, common sense is where computers score a perfect zero.
Or perhaps, I should put it differently. If the job of the autoworker on the factory line requires a few lines of code, the common sense of a five-year-old requires hundreds of millions of lines of code.
On the surface, this stark distinction may not be obvious. But it’s quite true that computers have no common sense whatsoever. So, something like combinatorial creativity, which is all about tapping into one’s knowledge to come up with fresh ideas, will continue to remain precious as it has always been.
So, jobs requiring an intuitive understanding of things and complex abilities to model human nature such as humor, leadership, and acting will remain safe. Specifically, people like novelists, creative artists and software writers will be rowing the future boat of jobs.
Also, it’s worth mentioning that middlemen, who have been the consistently replaceable commodity throughout the capitalist era, will also remain safe so long as their jobs involve this element of common sense.
For important purchases like a home, you want to talk to a human who can tell you where the good schools are, where the crime rate is low, how the sewer system works, etc.
Kaku, Michio. Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 (p. 306). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.
So, sophisticated real-estate agents are safe. The same applies to high-level stockbrokers.
And there’s clearly something about these types of questions that is uniquely human, which brings us to the next and last category of jobs that will remain automation-proof.
3. Hi-touch jobs
Hi-touch jobs are precisely the opposite of hi-tech jobs, in that the latter is carried out by advanced technology while the former requires irreplaceable human touch.
Think of nannies, nurses, companions, childcare workers etc. As Douglas Rushkoff points out in Throwing Rocks At The Google Bus,
Although diagnosing and medicating people might someday be done better by computers, caring for them will not.
Rushkoff, Douglas. Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity (Kindle Location 1116). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.
In fact, it is the exact human component of these jobs that makes them unscalable for business purposes. That’s the reason why they make such awful opportunities for capitalism. And that’s the reason why they make such untenable options for automation.
And did I mention those involved in agriculture and textiles? There’s a lot to be said for these people as well since the future consists in local sustainability as much as it consists in global connectivity.
So, those are the three types of jobs that will likely remain safe from automation in the years and decades to come. Please let me know if I missed something out, in the comments.
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