You are going to lose your job, soon. Sit down. Turn off your television. Put your devices to sleep. Now think what you will do if you lose your job to a robot. Think hard because any job you can come up with for yourself can be done by a robot. Except perhaps what you are doing right now – thinking. Seems ridiculous? Not really if you read Kevin Kelly’s The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future.
Kevin Kelly is Senior Maverick at Wired magazine. He co-founded Wired in 1993, and served as its Executive Editor from its inception until 1999. He authored the best-selling New Rules for the New Economy and the classic book on decentralized emergent systems, Out of Control. He co-founded the ongoing Hackers’ Conference, and was involved with the launch of the WELL, a pioneering online service started in 1985.
The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future
Author: Kevin Kelly
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Viking (June 7, 2016)
ISBN: 0525428089, 978-0525428084
We have seen many new technologies in the last couple of decades. Those born in the 70s and 80s have rapidly moved through a world without computers to a world where you can control things around you with a palm-sized computer in your hand. But there is a lot more to come.
Kevin Kelly talks of 12 forces that will change the world beyond our wildest imagination. These are not specific trends or technologies, but high-level processes and actions that we have been performing for centuries. Only now, we are at the cusp where most of these are poised to be taken over by artificial intelligence and robots. Robots that can do things that we do not just faster, but also better. Without any flaws and human errors.
The author tells the reader that time to sit back in the security of a job is over. In the new era, we all need to get ready to be students for life. The days of learning until 25-30 and then sliding into a career doing the same thing for all our life are finished. He shows us how the rate at which technology is evolving and our current environment means that there will be something new to learn every few years – and learning here will not be optional.
The author explores the current state of AI in detail and shows us that no job – doctor, lawyer, writer, or musician, developer – is safe. New AI algorithms with phenomenal computing capacities are making all these jobs obsolete everyday. In this he echoes other authors who have echoed similar view. The day when we will be working along with robots is not far away. And in this scenario, the author believes, the main job for humans will be to make the robots work better and think about what new problems AI can solve.
The book’s content may not seem any less than a wild science-fiction novel. However, the projections are rooted in technology that is available to us now. Depending on how fast or how soon we are able to scale, the world that Kevin Kelly paints may not be that distant. An interesting read if you like to wear the hat of futurist and take pride in monitoring trends in technology.