Smart Systems Threaten More Jobs Than Outsourcing 251
fbform writes "A strategy consulting firm called Strategy Analytics has announced that outsourcing to India and other countries is a small threat compared to having IT jobs replaced by 'smart systems'. Quote from a different news-source: 'higher value-added jobs - involving identification, assessment, conclusions, decisions, and recommendations - will continue to be lost to systems with increasingly intelligent capabilities'." Such as this one.
Reaction Throughout Modern History (Score:2, Informative)
This is the same reaction that has been given to new technology since the start of the Industrial Revolution, if not before.
Starting in the nineteenth century, a wave of time-saving devices and new manufacturing processes allowed a few workers to complete jobs that had previously required the laborous attentions of a multitude of skilled craftsmen. For one example out of many, consider the difference between clothing that was either simple and home-made or expensively tailored by a professional seamstress and mass-produced clothing that can be sold as a commodity at Wal-Mart.
Many new advances in technology have increased efficiency and allowed machines to either leverage the effort of a few humans (allowing a few people controlling the machines to replace an entire factory-full of workers) or to replace humans entirely. An outcry (and often, calls for governmental interference) has followed each new advance in labor-saving devices. Doomsday predictions of mass unemployment and poverty have been common -- and always wrong, since increases in efficiency brought about by technology have universally brought about a higher standard of living for everyone. Some people lost their jobs, but other new jobs (and new industries) were created; it's not a zero-sum game. Additionally, higher standards of living have been promulgated across the board. For example, a standard work week used to be 10 hours * 6 days; now, in America it is 8 hours * 5, and in Europe it is even lower (albeit due to government regulation rather than market forces in the latter case).
Now, according to TFA, it is the "knowledge workers" who have their jobs on the cutting block. Boo hoo. While it sucks in the short run for the individuals who may suffer personal turmoil from being made redundant by machines, and there may be temporary economic displacements of labor, in the long run almost everybody will benefit either directly or indirectly from a growing economy where everybody has to work less for a higher standard of living.
Re:Hurry! (Score:5, Informative)
Can you imagine a "natural language" based system replacing that SQL app you spent two years writing? No? Well I be a journalist can.
This announcement is just one more dollup of horse-manure in a long line of horse manure.
This trend first(?) mentoned in 1811. (Score:5, Informative)
Textile workeres were losing their jobs to stocking-machines that did knitting more cheaply than themselves, and indeed decided to destroy the machines. They organized into a group known as the Luddites, until England cracked down hard on them - wikipedia reporting that "at one time, there were more British troops fighting the Luddites than Napoleon Bonaparte".