What happens when technology replaces people

Just Another Thought...

Praises and accolades to the newest and greatest gadgets of the 21^st century. We now have ever shrinking computer and processors and cameras. But, what might be coming next is the real question. How small is too small? How fast is too fast? How creative is too far?

In the beginning of the march to advanced technology, a computer filled an entire office floor with dozens of technical minds operating and managing it. Today, a laptop can do just as much calculating and computing. Thousands of people put their minds to work on ways to reduce the size and increase the processing speeds of the old gigantic systems. Universities dedicated entire departments, with deans included, to the objective of making computers and computing faster, smaller and better, and they succeeded.

However, within their success were the seeds of their own demise. The creation of the internet served to link universities, research labs and field researchers together into one system. Sharing and comparing data and findings is now the norm – with very little human intervention. Man has advanced himself into a position of increasing irrelevance through the advances of technology.

Spread sheet once requiring a team of bookkeepers and accountants can now be prepared and managed by one or two individuals. Is this advancement in man’s best interest? Maybe, maybe not because fewer workers needed for a certain type of work forces retraining, but puts the control of that technology and data in fewer and fewer hands. This forces retraining on an ever increasing scale.

Factories once requiring hundreds and thousands for the production of a single or line of products can now be done by a computer operator, technician and an army of non-human robot machines. Who wins in this arrangement? The companies that once employed human workers force more and more people into retraining.

Where does it end?

Human workers become less valuable and more of a liability to companies. Meanwhile, government regulations restrict and control the introduction of newer and different technologies into the market place. New technologies that may be better and more human friendly than the current batch are stifled for the benefit of the established status quo. This is not good business, but does limit and control entrepreneurs and new business startups.

In the end, one man, the poor one, becomes the slave to the rich and powerful one. Through the use of technology developed by colleges and universities, powerful individuals and entities can control the production of goods, foods and availability of services to the masses. If a certain group refused to “go along to get along”, services such as sewer and water can be decreased or shut off from thousands of miles away, forcing cooperation and capitulation of those in opposition. Simply put the mass of humanity has enslaved itself through technology controlled by a very few.