Automation of jobs should be like Star Trek, not Star Wars – TNW

At tech festivalBrain Barin Budapest,Pter rvai, CEO and co-founder of Prezi, gave a talk titled Embrace automation? where he argued that being replaced by machines doesnt have to be a bad thing if we choose the right sci-fi movie future.

Arvai argues that we need to rethink our definition of work first and move society towards finding ways to make automation of jobs work in our favor.

To illustrate how weve done this in the past, rvai talked about when his grandmother got her first washing machine. Instead of having to hand wash soiled baby clothing for hours on end (babies poop a lot), she could simply put it in her washer and could instead useher time to do paid work.

This could continue in the future, but well need to createnew purposes for humans in a technologically driven future. rvai believes science fiction has a lot to offer when it comes to shaping that future vision.

Up until now, machines have mostly taken over our unpaid jobs, making our lives much easier. What people are afraid of now is that machines are gunning for our paid jobs, not only the menial ones.

No matter how frightening this might seem, rvai is positive we wont miss the jobs robots and AI will take away from us:

We need to start thinking differently about work. As we saw from my grandmothers example, it isnt necessarily what you get paid for. In fact, we might have to open our minds up to this idea again.

No matter how frightening this might seem, rvai is positive we wont miss the jobs robots and AI will take away from us.

Many people have focused on the financial issues of automation with suggestions like robot-tax or universal income, but this doesnt answer the fundamental question of work according to rvai, which is can we fix the future of work so it doesnt come at the expense of our happiness?.

Only 13 percent of people worldwide say that theyre engaged with their work, US being the highest with merely 29 percent, according to a study rvai quoted. Without uninspiring jobs to fill our time, humans will have to find new and fulfilling ways to live life just like in Star Trek.

The good news, according to rvai, is that we know more now what actually makes people happy than we did in the past. The bad news is that the science isnt precise yet, but that shouldnt stop us from trying to improve our work experience.

rvai says, however, that the direction is pretty clear and hes found three main goals that should help people live more fulfilling lives. Both the Prezi team, who work on solutions for workplaces, and rvai as an employer wantto try to help people reach these goals:

Achieving the first goal helps us reach the other two. We need to sleep well, eat well, and be able to grow as a person to have a fulfilling life. Possessing optimal energy then allows you to nurture the personal relationships in your life, combating loneliness which pretty much equals unhappiness.

The final goal might be more difficult to achieve, trying to cut through the noise and connect the dots that matter to you. Anybody whos tried to achieve happiness with these goals knows this is hard work, even though you dont get paid for it (yet?). But if we dont incorporatethese aspects into the future of work, well keep wasting human potential, because 13 percent engagement is a waste of mental energy.

Thats where Star Trek comes in. For rvai, these goals act as guidelines, but to complete the picture we need a vision for the future. The Star Trek and Star Wars universes offer perfect examples of hugely different visions in a technologically automated world.

These universes have what we can actually achieve in our lifetime. They have extremely good AI and the people dont need to go hungry because technology can provide for them. But what do they use their freedom from labor for?

rvai sums Star Wars up as a struggle for power (Wars might have given it away), while the people of the Star Trek universe are motivated and guided by the expansion of human knowledge. Of course there are some power struggles in Star Trek, and Star Wars has the enlightened jedi, but theyre not the ones guiding the entire story.

Star Trek has therefore more in common with the three goals above than Star Wars, as theyve managed to include them in their vision of how humans should live. The shows best-known catchphrase is even Live long and prosper!

So the question well need to ask ourselves about the future of work could be: Do we want to prioritize our lives and education in favor of a Star Trek technological future, or a Star Wars one?

It seems like the Trekkies are favored to win.

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Automation of jobs should be like Star Trek, not Star Wars - TNW