In his TED talk, David Autor (2016) brings up the paradox about how the development of machines to do work for us has not made us unemployed and redundant. Examples like tractors and the assembly line has improved productivity within agriculture and industries significantly, still the number of employed Americans have risen alongside.
Autor (2016) claims there are two ideas to why that is: the first is called the O-Ring, the name originating from the part of the space shuttle Challenger which malfunctioned and caused the shuttle to explode. The O-Ring means that even though every other part of a product/service/construction is perfect, it is only as strong as the links between the components. Thus this requires multiplicity in service offerings and not a uniformity. We as humans are the O-Rings contributing with our expertise, knowledge and creativity which are traits that cannot be automatized. The second idea is "Never Get Enough", which stands for the never-ending aspiration to thrive and develop our society and our selves. Combined, these ideas convey that human ingenuity is basically endless and humans will not be doomed to redundancy among a world of machines.
Humans might not be replaced by machines according to Autor. However, humans might feel that they are being replaced by machines and experience automation as a threat to their livelihood. Autor takes up the example of farmers decreasing radically in the early 20th century but not being excluded from the workforce by going to high school (which became a mandatory school system due to this change in decreasing need of farmers).
However, this change did not happen over night and losing a job which you probably have had all your life and contributes to how you identify yourself can make a negative view on automation. To those people which practically lose their jobs (but are able to gain a new one with more complexity) can only see their part in this scenario, which could cause stress and negative views on how society is developing. From the bigger picture, we can see that it is an improvement to effectiveness and productivity so therefore it could be important to work with conveying the positive effects to everyone. It ultimately means that society benefits from automation, even though not every individual does.
I do however agree with Autor's idea that human creativity and expertise can never be replaced. Machines can be programmed with functions that humans have mastered and perfected - but when machines are offered as services, humans become more important to be available to aid when automation falls short of what a service needs to complete or fulfill.
Human ingenuity, even though it is hard to imagine, is endless considering how much technology has developed in the last 20 years. The same basis for all of these technological inventions is that humans have from their own mind created them. So it is impossible for me today to say how the future is going to be, what type of employments will disappear and what opportunities will emerge. However, to have the trust that humans will always have job opportunities because of never ending developing of technology and society is comforting, since I am educated within business administration where there is continuous talk of how work could be replaced by machines.
