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Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2017-09-12
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXrPO2iWdho
good afternoon everyone and welcome I know we are here to discuss a very important topic today and that's the future of work and we have a catchy title and that's whether the future of work is gonna be workless or if we're going to work less I I'm Carmen and I'm joined today by Nicholas on stage to discuss what to really believe is one of the most
important topics of our days so I wanna make a disclaimer before we start that we are not experts in employment we are not government agents and we don't know and we got it is of it or another regulations what we do know is that there is a at the chronological evolution that's going on at the moment and it's gonna change it's gonna make a lot of
jobs obsolete and have in their lives maybe a future actually and and we can just make logic of conclusions from accepting that fact that we want to discuss with you today we do get a front seat at what's what's happening though because both %HESITATION UN die every day we we worked to automate the few tasks so we kind of understand what's happening by think predicting the
future is quite difficult because we're at the tipping point we are at the point where we can create the future in a way because I think the objective for today would have would be to have a constructive conversation are around how the future of work can I look like grief and I I'd like to just second that the we we get exposed because we can start
ups we get explosion new business models that are being enabled by technology and and what's coming is going to be shown on we have to add to the spy think a good way to start is to ask ourselves why now why should we discuss these noises relevant but that's a very good question actually a VM this question and of let's say Roberts taking over our lives
and our jobs that has been around for many many years I was when I was growing up and back in the very distant eighties and I remember distinctly classroom discussion and where the with the students and a teacher were discussing about this exact a Republican and the conclusion made van was that okayed Roberts makes some things but then somebody has to make their Albert so and
you know society would find ways to replace that which jobs and but the right now I think they're the speed of change is so significant that is our site would not be able to adapt and so quickly would not gonna be able to generate jobs in there in the in the pace of that going to be lost and and the reason for that is that we
have as Carmen said Richard tipping point that the processing speeds are social fast at the moment and that the neighbors so many different business models to M. and come up and and you know and to finish that would devise them we get a lot of funding and at for this so and and this thousands and thousands of em %HESITATION businesses that are now being developed that
we change our world so what happened basically the way I'm thinking of this when I tried to simplify right %HESITATION we started by inventing a good a steam engine then came on assembly lines and came electricity %HESITATION then can computerized patient digital isolation platform is Asian and the question is where are we now know what's next and %HESITATION some people call it the fourth investor evolution
some people call it industry four point though but I I think whatever name we're gonna find for it %HESITATION the most important thing is that's already impacting pork as we know it and I think it's the bots only got accelerate the in the future %HESITATION and by the way I'm I'm think I'm seeing these everywhere everywhere are we just three D. printed the first building %HESITATION
%HESITATION we we we are now %HESITATION producing choosing in something we call speed factories so what that means is that we are using robots that in ten minutes are able to produce a pair of shoes for me that's fully customize I can choose to have a pink line on it if I want it on the what about traditional industries that's happening as well we are extracting
oil at at at at the moment by controlling it as humans from a control room while the machines are doing the work so it's kind of everywhere yeah I agree and I wanna make a distinction here comment and say their name the difference now is that a computers are taking over what we do so let's take care of the car example and and and you know
we heard about driverless cars and those of you who were at the the main stage earlier you heard about the future of driverless cars and but the you know cars replaced colleges as a and and medium to get from place a to place being and then maps came up because we needed to understand you know know how to get from one place to the other and
then the maps became digital maps and now have googlemaps and we have I think it's great feature that the you know you you can tell the traffic as well and on on Google maps so and all these are tools their tools that help us to Jeff from place a to place being faster by driving the car driving this car is actually replacing us replacing you and
me and as drivers we want drive cars in the future into places also everybody who works in transportation taxi drivers truck driver Reginald who marries and and de food delivery at and it's about cars now but in the future it could be about shapes and planes all these people would find themselves in front of reality where the job is not there anymore do you think is
going to come to Greece assigned time similar to mix the question you know I I keep I keep hearing this Sir and I think that Greece is so backwards that that and you know things would ever come here and actually aids just yesterday there's a hundred countries in the in the world that we're being %HESITATION attack by cyber attack and increase was not one of them
and then you think of course I mean there's nothing to attack in Greece and but the V. eh that through things that these people that the the the least acknowledge are being adopted by a normal people like you and me and everybody else in this room I mean that respect and we are ahead of the curve where one of the fastest for them countries in adopting
new technologies and I'm telling you when this business modest start making a taking shape else where in the world they would come to Greece quite fast there's no way you can escape the SS I think but the human element is also important we haven't we haven't passionate yet because people now feel vulnerable they feel they were left out there's fear and I think it's only normal
to have to have fear audits also because politicians are reluctant to go out there and transmit a message that sounds like %HESITATION the future of work is not what you expect sold his job so you think are coming are not gonna come actually bought so it's very important to have a Frank honest conversation about the lack of preparedness thoughts in the world stood to face with
this at the faces issue and I think the fact that we as entrepreneurs taking that stand %HESITATION it's a good thing and we hope everyone's guys he is going to be exposed to to these and I just wanna make another point about Greece you know we have thirty percent unemployment rate increase and we are struggling to get out of this crisis with a thirty percent unemployment
and we might see that we find ourselves the moment we've managed to sort of %HESITATION escape are in front of the southern prices it's not gonna because by debt but that's gonna because by that knowledge so that's a that's a cue thought to be a had especially if your Greek witches embrace the chant which is embrace the change to you know F. for future otherwise you
just gonna find yourself from the wrong side of the if history basic so and what's this is what what what do you think Carmen how do you think Richard played out I mean I I I think so far we have said that this is coming it's coming really fast in the reasons coming really fast is because technology is moving up there has enabled a lot of
you do business models to be developed and and that we said that this might lead to mass unemployment but we know what would happen let's talk about some thought about what would happen the way I'm thinking about this I always start with the question what is the purpose behind all this I think is the right question to start with what is the purpose behind our building
a car that can drive from point a to point B. without past human speaking revolved what is the purpose of building an AI that control there sixty percent of the work that I'm currently doing everyday was the purpose of that event answer these questions I think we have two options one of them and I we building this technology so that we can work even more hours
for less pay or are we building this technology so that we can reinvent the way we leave and the way we work and build an alternative future but I would argue for the second and I think that's very important point actually I I disagree I think these models are being developed for people and companies to make more money I mean that the main motivation is money
absolutely but the fact that we have a model that works that opens new opportunities is incredibly important one they're stacked so the fun we have not all four billion people on the internet with billions coming in the next decades the father we have two billion people on Facebook that we've got people using platforms and being connected all the time opened its doors to a new future
I agree but and that that could be the case but actually I don't think people like to share so let's go back to Greece we have thirty percent unemployment here right and that those of us who are employed and work twelve to fourteen hours a day so why don't we just give up like thirty forty percent of our pay and work forty percent less hours and
then we can have a work life balance because there's no such an option do do you think people wouldn't do it if this option was available because I'm not sure because we don't have an option that tells me that if I give thirty percent of the pay and by the way this also makes the point that money is the only way we can create our value
the economy's so maybe that's not the case in a question but I don't have this alternative but I think we could we could build this alternative where %HESITATION basically we orchestrate com we orchestrate global work force in a way that creates value more efficiently and without this we've found this by the way we've got platforms now %HESITATION where all of us are freelancers all of us
are contributors weekend just expound on that model bring give maybe at the state level bring get at the regional level and make sure all of us contribute on all of that is about making money though everything's fell around making money all these platforms from and you know the same platforms to the freelancers platforms and it's about creating value at the same time E. yes I agree
but you know look at what's happening in the world it's it's going competitor there the other week I mean people are are closing the borders area voting to leave the European Union there could want to believe that Mexico world and they are for thirty five percent for isolationism in France and these people are people who have jobs the jobs are not paying for and what they
liked what they like but what happens when their use of jobs I think what happens is that they'd vote for populist leaders up and tell them that they can magically bring jobs back pick what you're saying is that if we continue doing what we're doing or if you continue doing things away without them in the past this is the future we have ahead of us and
I tell you how I see this future I see a future of great divide a future where access is for the select few future of pomp major income gaps and that's a future I don't want I agree with you that if we continue doing things the way we've done them in the past that's where we're going so let's avoid that and think of how can we
do things differently okay I can agree to that point however a you know this technology is a weapon these technologies are our weapon for companies and for people to dominate over others managers I just think it's part of human nature to go against that you have like cases like obamacare in the states where people are anxious to repeat so that they can deny access to health
care to their fellow citizens I just want to be saying and thing happening I understand that it could be enabled by platforms but I just think it even flappers are there humans were not a regular use them in the way of the match so here's the question the question is do we want to live in the world where half percent of the population is not starving
for example and do we want faces an option at the point where we are actually producing enough food to feed everyone on planet earth because I think everyone should answer this question with a radical now for them what would we do about it one we can use technology to create this abundance to create surplus com and then we can use again technology are two distributed equally
and make sure that everybody has a good quality of life I think this is the challenge to this is that the the future we want to go towards you're going to talk about universal basic income and that sort of thing we already have good models around this which was gets me excited so we are talking about a fifteen hour work week which would mean that all
of us I contribute to to to the global economy in a very well orchestrated and efficient way and then we've got the model of the universal basic income %HESITATION and I think this are good ideas to to keep exploring okay let's take a fifteen also let's take the alternative because the alternative is terrible we've got people aging we've got more people entering the workforce and none
of the other scenarios are even realistic what are you gonna tell me that people gonna work until they're seventy or are you going to tell me that through continuous life long learning we're gonna be able to bring those people back in the economy and their fifties I think that's not an option so we should stop considering it as an option and explore what else is out
there and I think this models have higher potential of of allowing us to build a better reality yeah and I have a question the fifteen hour work week and what are we going to do with their lives because you know the way I see is that humans are not equipped to think they need a sense of purpose Winnie the fact you know go to work because
we need the sense of purpose we work for that and if we don't have that sense of purpose I think what we're gonna find us and feeds them emerged in that virtual reality games like the ones in the in the back there and for like half the day and it's gonna be virtual then makes them augmented them you know who knows what will happen with this