Man vs machine — the case for human dignity

Automation is leading towards two incompatible societies !

The advantaged class that will benefit from automation, who have the skills and knowledge to harness the benefits of automation and the disadvantaged class whose jobs might get displaced due to automation and who do not have the necessary skills. Therefore making the economic divide even greater.

Every job that can be automated will be automated !

And so the questions and the anxiety around these questions are many. Which jobs will be displaced ? Which jobs will be most impacted by automation ? Which jobs to automate and which to not ? Which processes should be automated ?

This also brings up ethical questions on which jobs should not be automated.

A couple of years back during one of my workshops on frugal innovation in Lille, a director of a company that manages jobs for handicapped people (https://en.lavieestbelt.fr/) had explained how these partially handicapped people were given work like manually scanning courriers and how they felt useful and dignified doing it everyday and showed up at 9:00 am sharp which had given me a new insight into this very relevant question on automation.

On the other hand, we see in retail stores like Auchand or Carrefour that people have to do a robotic job at the cash counter to just be able to be paid the minimum wages.