Is tomorrow's technology already here?

by Lynda Nicolson, Marketing Manager, reading the Economist

I picked up a copy of The Economist magazine this week (I'm old fashioned that way, I do like a magazine) and as usual, was amazed at the quantity and quality of articles that leave me shaking my head in wonder.  Innovation is alive and well and it's astounding to read how it will affect our day to day lives. 
 
One recent study by academics at Oxford University suggests that 47% of today's jobs could be automated in the next two decades.

Forty seven percent ! 

Here are some more snippets from The Economist  issue 18-24th Jan:

Google Everywhere
By now, you've probably heard about Google buying Nest Labs for $3.2billion in cash. Nest make sophisticated thermostats and smoke detectors.

Why are Google interested in thermostats and smoke detectors you may wonder? 
 
The answer is that this now gives Google a step into the home-appliance market. Google  already own Motorola Mobility handset maker for $12.5billion and Boston Dynamics robotics company. The common factor? Data.

Nest's thermostats generate plenty of data. Gathering and crunching the data will make the physical devices more intelligent and will aim to profit from the "Internet of Things" - a world in which all kinds of devices use a combination of software, sensors and wireless connectivity to talk to their owners and each other.

(Quick plug here for CENSIS, the new Innovation Centre launched in Scotland last week, the Centre for Sensors and Imaging Systems.  Any company with an interest in "The internet of things" and M to M should be talking to CENSIS.  Visit their website here)

Shortly after returning to being Google's chief executive in 2011, Larry Page said he wanted it to develop more services that everyone would use at least twice a day -  like a toothbrush.

Google's search engines and Android operating system for mobile devices pass that test. Will it now develop 'toothbrush' products in a variety of areas, from robots to card to domestic-heating controls?

Is your imagination flowing now? Robotic / driverless devices buzzing around the house talking constantly to a Nest home automation platform anyone?

(PS did anyone see the article about fridges being responsible for sending spam emails? Lots of work to do before the Internet of Things truly comes of age I think.  But plenty of brains and talent to come up with solutions.)

Read the full article here.


The Future of Jobs
Another feature that caught my eye commented on how today's technology would have an immense effect on tomorrow's jobs.  (And that no country was ready for it!)

This isn't new news of course.  John Maynard Keynes wrote an essay in 1930 titled 'Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren'.    One of the new 'diseases' he identified was 'technological unemployment'.  This is 1930 remember, so he did feel the need to qualify this title with the explanation that his readers may not have heard of the problem but were certain to hear a lot more about it in years to come.

Keynes's vision of everyone in the 2030s being richer than in the 1930s is largely achieved, says the Economist, but his belief that people would work just 15 hours or so a week?  Don't think so.

Read The Future of Jobs article here.


Technology's effect

The Economist's view in the Leader article is just as thought-provoking.  They state that innovation has always cost people their jobs.  Think artisan weavers being swept aside by the mechanical loom in the Industrial Revolution.  They say that innovations that already exist could destroy swathes of jobs that have hitherto been untouched.  Until now, the jobs most vulnerable to machines where those that involved routine, repetitive tasks.  But the 'big data' computers are increasingly able to perform complicated tasks more cheaply and effectively than people. 

They suggest that a taxi driver will be a rarity in many places by the 2030s or 2040s. And will there be airline pilots? Traffic cops? Soldiers? 

What jobs do you think are at risk? 

Read the Leader comment here