Who hasn’t read the headlines: robots are coming and take our jobs? In fact, up to 45% of the work tasks currently performed by workers of all kinds can be automated using existing technologies. Which ones will appear in the future? However, there is one point in this story that is often overlooked: while new technologies destroy jobs, they also create many new ones. In fact, over half of the jobs that schoolchildren are currently being trained for will cease to exist in the future. Innovation continues to spawn incredible new industries, and new jobs are pounding.
We have used our image too often to see a bleak future in which robots leave us without work and a sense of existence. But we can imagine an incredible parallel future, in which technology creates even more opportunities for workers in a wide variety of fields.
What awaits us in our working future?
Creative segment
Technological trends should lead us to the so-called "imagination economy". It is defined as "an economy in which intuitive and creative thinking creates economic value after logical and rational thinking is given over to other kinds of economics." Humans still do better than machines when it comes to inventing and pushing the intellectual, creative and imaginary boundaries that make these tasks difficult to automate with ease.
Examples of jobs in the creative segment of the near future include 3D fashion designers, virtual reality experience designers, organ designers, and augmented reality architects. These jobs will depend on the emergence of new creative tools such as 3D printing and virtual reality, as well as other digital gadgets.
What's remarkable about these roles is that they are inherently multidisciplinary. For example, a VR experience designer will have to combine expertise in both art and technology to create immersive worlds.
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Neuroscience, Human Improvement and Bioengineering
As genetic engineering and neuroengineering advances, so does the demand for specialists in this field. Perhaps one day people will be able to upload their consciousness into cars, merge thoughts with others, record other people's memories and even see what others are thinking, what they feel and intend to do.
Many innovators and scientists are working to make this all a reality.
Early last year, Elon Musk introduced Neuralink, a company whose goal is to combine human consciousness with artificial intelligence, "neural lace". We've already managed to connect two brains over the Internet, allowing one brain to communicate with the other. Numerous research teams have been able to develop mechanisms to "read minds" or reproduce the memories of individuals using devices. Even in a simple version. We've also seen many breakthroughs in gene therapy and genetic engineering. The list is long.
Examples of jobs in this area include brain cracker, neuroimplant technician, neuro-augmentation specialists, and neuro-robotics engineers.
Ethicists, philosophers and politicians from technology
Technology is an extremely powerful tool that raises many new social, ethical and moral problems. Constantly. Technology itself is not good or evil; society makes him evil or good.
As more and more exciting technologies emerge - such as virtual reality, neurocomputer implants, and the Internet of Things - there will be an increasing demand for professionals who can ask the right questions about these new tools and establish appropriate ethical guidelines for a wide variety of challenging scenarios. This can occur at the company, government or even personal level, for example, in the process of providing advice to individuals seeking ethical advice.
What kind of specialists will be needed in this area? For example, cognitive enhancement consultants, ethics of genetic modification, digital detectives, privacy advocates, techno law drafters, and many others. This area will be of paramount importance to our species if we are to optimize the benefits of technology and minimize its harm.
Renewable energy
The biggest challenges in the world today also create the biggest market opportunities. As climate change becomes a growing threat to our species, we are faced with the need to make the right decisions. Many cities are integrating a wide variety of solutions that include green infrastructure, clean transportation and renewable energy.
As a result, the growing demand for renewable energies and clean solutions has already created many jobs and will create more. For example, the solar and wind industries were the main drivers of job creation in the renewable energy sector in the United States, which employed 777,000 people in 2016. Many countries are planning to phase out their depleting fuel sources altogether in the coming decades.
And then we will need smart city planners, clean grid architects, zero waste home designers, energy consultants, and more.
The future of transport
Many people fear that the development of autonomous transport will leave millions of people unemployed, and this is true. But while innovation in the transportation sector will eliminate the need for jobs, the emergence of self-driving cars, electric vehicles, drones and Hyperloop will inevitably entail the need for new types of talent.
For example, builders with advanced electrical skills, new modes of transport operators, traffic analysts and self-driving operating system engineers will be needed.
If you look even further into the future, you can see the emergence of interplanetary space pilots. Most recently, the Virgin Galactic VSS Unity passenger spacecraft made its seventh flight. SpaceX also announced the Interplanetary Transport System. Humanity will inevitably have to become an interplanetary species - and maybe intergalactic - and this will mean the emergence of many new jobs and opportunities that we could not even dream of.
Meaningful work
The examples described above are among the many new jobs and industries. Already, we need to prepare young minds for life in the 21st century, in an ever-changing workforce.
One of the most powerful consequences of current trends is that “work” will become more meaningful when we have to do more tasks that require creativity, intelligence and interactions with people, and this, in theory, could make us happier.
A recent report from the McKinsey Global Institute found that the hardest tasks to automate in the shortest time frame are those that require refined decision-making, planning, people-to-people, or creative skills. Unsurprisingly, humans continue to bypass machines when it comes to innovation and pushing intellectual and creative boundaries.
Our ultimate goal should be to create a society in which work is motivated by passion, creativity and a desire to contribute to the future of our species. Work should develop a person and represent progress. It doesn't matter if this progress is technological, intellectual or creative.
Ilya Khel