We gotta talk about Bruno - Technology and our future

     I generally don't fear technology. I may not understand it, I may not have an interest in a particular technology...but I don't fear it.  Technology is generally neutral; it is simply an item that, depending on how it is used can either be destructive or beneficial.  

    Sometimes it can be both.   Wagon makers and bicyclists welcomed the coming of the gasoline engine because they understood the potential of it; where farrier's and saddle makers rued the day for the same reasons. 

    Computer science has allowed the world to contact in a way it's never connected before, as we can chat in real time to people around the world, share information, support causes and discuss ideas.   It can also isolate us and build walls around us of our own design.  As the echo's of what we believe can be deafening; and that makes it all that more important to pop your own bubble and face your own prejudices.  

    Which is harder to do than you may think.   I'm guilty of failing to listen to all sides too. 

 This is why we have to talk about Bruno.  Much like the figure in the beloved movie Encanto, Bruno is both feared and misunderstood.   However he's also always in the background, lurking.

    Technology is going to replace my job eventually.   Let me explain, way back in college I took a phone bank job; this was before telemarketing got a bad name.   Since then I've worked as in sales and financial services for banks and insurance companies.   I've not only supervised and managed call center teams but I've been a trainer as well.   I have licensees and certificates lining the walls of my office.  I have spent the majority of my working life as a phone jockey.

    The wonderful thing about this type of work is that it's always been there for me as a fall back position.  Sometimes the job sucks but I've had more good days than bad at it.  I've made a very good living at it. 

    Up until recently the idea that I might be replaced by some sort of robot has always been a pipe dream.   Thanks to programs like ChatGPT, the fact that I might be replaced has suddenly become very real.

    Imagine your that farrier watching the first car bump noiselessly down the road.  You may not want to believe it....but your days are numbered.  It's not going to happen today or tomorrow, but technology and science doesn't ever stop, there is always that one improvement can mean the difference between you working tomorrow or not.

    ChatGPT is an open sourced program which has already shown it's worth by passing an MBA program and even managed to pass the bar exam.  It's still learning it's still getting better.   Now that's not to say that it's intelligent or "alive."    The program only knows what's programmed into it.   It has no way to "create" or "think on its feet."  It has no insight.

    However with the right data and given enough time...it will be able to replace customer support and sales specialists, programmer's, copy and technical writers, paralegals, managers, educators and a host of other positions.  These by the ways are the people I work with on a day to day basis.

    In some ways I am worried, because for the first time to my knowledge...what I do is actually being threatened by technology. 

    I am thinking about this because other industries are being threatened as well.   Maybe not by a computer program but they are being threatened.  Think of the Oil Rig worker looking out and seeing row upon row of windmills turning in the wind or solar farms humming with renewable energy.  

    Well we will never be able to replace petroleum products in our lives; seriously the very screen you're reading this on has some petroleum derived product in it.  However the industry will change in the future and it's never going to be what it once was.   Their job is being threatened.

    Imagine the Coal miner, a product that was once the engine of this country, finding they themselves  are going the very way of the dinosaur.  

    Nothing is ever done in isolation.  Job losses there will ripple throughout other industries.  Trucking companies will not need as many drivers (and they are threatened by self - driving technologies to begin with).  

    Unless we talk about this "Bruno", the more we simply are not going to be prepared for the changes ahead.  

    Capitalism certainly works, but in the drive for profits the average worker is often left behind.  This is a cold hard fact and one we have to admit to.  We have had unemployment rates as high as 15% as recently as 2020, but that was due to an economic shutdown caused by a disease.  Imagine that rate, or higher, being a constant way of life.

    I've seen firsthand what change can do to a community, having grown up in the rust belt.  I've also seen that progressive forward thinking leadership can change the outcome as well.  My home town of Pittsburgh avoided much of the economic downturn by focusing on robotics, health care, and the banking/financial industry.  Pittsburgh today is a leading city in the use of Green Technology although the city, and region, has a far way to go to reach its 2035 goals.  

    We need to talk retraining existing workers.   We need to talk universal basic income; which is supported by both Republicans and Democrats overall and was talked about nationally some 50 + years ago by then Republican President Nixon.

 

    I'm not here to debate the merits and disadvantages of such a program, only that some solutions are available to us today...and we need to start talking about Bruno.    

    These changes like them or not, are going to be forced upon us.  Technology is only going to improve, Green Energy is the wave of the wave of the future - and despite efforts to stop it - it all comes down to the bottom line.

    It's cheaper to produce and the majority of Americans favor moving towards green power.   We, as Americans, are not going to make the goals as determined by the Paris Accords but any effort is a good effort. 

    In the movie Encanto, the only way the magical house was saved was dealing directly with Bruno and his visions - both good and bad and choosing a direction.

    The only way forward for us; is to talk about technology and the future...and create a good future for us all.  That conversation needed to start 30 years ago, but today is a good day to start talking about Bruno.