Never ceases to amaze, listening to reports of potentials for life in the future. The promise that labor-saving devices will free up the population to enjoy life, work less and have more opportunities to do things, or nothing – the choices were unlimited.
Some of the speculations are spot-on, while others are wildly optimistic.
But all of these reports have one thing in common; the future is coming and there is nothing we can do about it.
This report, a segment from the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, talks about the increased uses of automation and the potential benefits and pitfalls associated with it. Broadcast on the eve of a major convention of AFofL/CIO members, emphasis is given over to automation and employment. Are these new labor saving devices destined to replace entire swaths of the workforce? In a word, yes.
It’s pointed out in this report that the ones suffering the most will be the ones lacking education – they will all be replaced by devices designed to perform menial labor for a fraction of the cost hiring a human work force would be. It doesn’t seem to bother the reporters that much of the potential for soaring unemployment figures. Their main concern is themselves being replaced by some form of automation. In 1963 the mere concept of Artificial Intelligence was almost the exclusive property of the Issac Asimovs and Ray Bradburys – fodder for Science Fiction – the reality of AI was hardly considered at the time. Of course, neither was social media for that matter.
Sixty one years after this report and literally nothing that we take for granted today as tools for education, recreation, communication were available at the time. It’s fascinating how far we’ve come – what new sets of fears and concerns we have now that we didn’t have in 1963 and what things we worried about in 1963 didn’t transpire in the future.
We’re still evolving – while simultaneously devolving. Education was crucial then (as well as now, to be honest) but there is a segment of our society looking at education as something of a luxury and not a necessity – that is a future that is worrisome and not an automated one.
In 1963 things were indeed different then – and here is that report from The CBS Evening News for November 13, 1963.
