In his book "Flesh and Machines", Rodney A. Brooks, the father of
modern Artificial Intelligence and director of MIT's Computer Science
and Artificial Intelligence Lab, claims that we are about to be
simultaneously hit by two technological revolutions that together will
fundamentally change our nature and the way we live. The first, the
robotics revolution, will unleash intelligent autonomous robots into our
everyday lives, changing our society and the ways we interact with
machines. The second, the biotechnology revolution, will transform both
the ways we use technology in our own bodies and the way we build
machines. Thus "our machines will become much more like us, and we will
become much more like our machines."
(partly copied from
American Scientist).
In short, we will work less and live longer.
How will this affect our society?
A historical perspective
In the 19th century, people had to work 14 hours per day, 6 days per
week, from a very young to a very old age.
This has gradually changed. The labor unions will claim this is thanks
to themselves. But they are wrong.
The situation improved because of better technology.
We started finding tricks to make production more efficient: We could
produce more with less labor. The smart tricks were jointly called
automatization.
People are now working 40 hours per week or less, with many countries talking about working 32 hours per week. We retire younger.
In the middle ages, life expectancy was only about half what it is now.
During the centuries, we learned how to live healthier. We became more
hygienic, had more luxury and had to work less. We invented
medicine and health care.
All of this led to a much longer life.
The two effects combined
We work less and less, but live longer and longer. The two effects
amplify one resultant: a lower and lower portion of the population is
working.
How will this affect our society?
What solutions do we have to find?
How dramatic will the changes really be?
what type of technology can we expect, and how will this be accepted?
Many questions that need an answer. I will explain my views in follow-up entries.