Dare To Dream About Working Life, Automation And Human Rights

One of the most obvious areas that is in transition right now is our working life. The industrial age is going to end, and we are heading to what has been called the information age: The world is becoming smaller, since information can be spread all over the world in a matter of seconds.

This is a development that has begun decades ago, with the beginning of the information age told to be at the falling of the Berlin Wall that divided Germany into two countries.

While most people appreciate this idea, many are not aware of the impact and consequences this transition might have on their life or the lives of others around them.

There is one central idea that is spreading through the world, turning nearly every industry upside-down: All work that can be automated should be automated! And this really is great!

This means that if a machine can do a job - or just a part of it -, then a machine should do it. Not if a machine would be cheaper, but if a machine is able to do it as good as a human - or even better.

I don’t care about money - I care about human rights, so if possible, work should be automated no matter what.

The right to work

You might say that every human has the right to work. I totally agree with you there - but I bet that most people wouldn’t want to work like a robot 9 - 5 if there was no need to earn money.

So if a human being has to do such a job, he or she is on some level degraded to the status of a robot, and taken the possibility to use their consciousness and creativity to do what they love. This might have been OK for as long as human work was the only possibility to get something done. But now it just isn’t good anymore!

Full employment is no longer possible - or even desireable

Yes, this will mean that a lot of people will lose their job. And yes, this will also mean that the paradigm of full employment is no longer valid. So instead of desperately trying to keep a broken paradigm together by all means, we should better embrace the new paradigm and ensure that everybody is still able to fulfill their needs - all of their needs! - whether they do paid work in some form or not.

Of course, we all have to commit to changing our lives in a big way - but I think that our governments shouldn’t block that development, as they often do. They should provide us with possibilities to develop our ability to express ourselves fully and find our place in society: Where we can be of most use to others!

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