Making The Impossible, Possible

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “Making The Impossible, Possible.”

Even though the Jewish people are a tiny minority in the world, through our faith, determination, and the help of G-d, we are able to survive against all odds, contribute to the world far beyond our mere numbers, and succeed in truly incredible ways. From Einstein, Freud, and Marx to Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Ellison, we are a people that punches way above our weight.

I believe the lessons of faith and determination is one that we can all take away from the tests of our forefathers in the Bible to the flourishing modern State of Israel and to how we live our own lives today. G-d tests all of us, and if we go forward and answer His calling with a full heart and perseverance, G-d will help us to succeed above our wildest of dreams and even beyond the very laws of nature.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Reaping What You Sow

I liked this saying from the Kibbutz:

If you don’t say good morning to the tree, it won’t say happy new year to you.

Wow, that is pretty wise.

The love and care you put into something every day is what eventually you will get out of it. 

According to you work is your reward.

Yes, (generally-speaking) you reap what you sow…that’s the fruit of your labor. 

Consequences are real and they can be painful if you don’t see the connection between your actions and the reactions. 😉

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

All American Chair

Got to love this all American chair. 

Red, white, and blue. 

And stars and stripes everywhere. 

The only thing that I seriously wonder about is whether this chair was manufactured in the U.S. 

With the U.S. losing 35% of it’s manufacturing employment between 1998 and 2010 (from 17.6M to 11.5M), due in large part to outsourcing, there is a good chance this chair was made overseas. 

Now manufacturing makes up less than 9% of total U.S. employment. 

Also noteworthy is the loss of 51,000 manufacturing plants or 12.5% between 1998-2008.  

Together, agriculture and industry make up only approximately 20% of the entire U.S. economy. 

Manufacturing are agriculture are strategic capabilities for this country and any country. 

It’s not just what you know, but what you make!

Sure we can make things faster and easier with automation, but at this point there is a serious skills shortage (with millions of jobs going unfilled), and we need to safeguard the strategic knowledge, skills, capability, and capacity to make things vital to our thriving existence.

We need to be a more self-sufficient nation again and not a one-trick service pony. 

We need to use information to be better innovators, creators, developers, and builders. 

Information is great, but you can’t live by information alone. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Robots, Who’s Telling Whom What To Do

There was an interesting quote about jobs of the future by Tom Preston-Werner in Bloomberg Businessweek:

“In the future, there’s potentially two types of jobs: where you tell a machine what to do, programming a computer, or a machine is going to tell you what to do. You’re either the one that creates the automation or you’re going to get automated.”

Already, we’ve seen manufacturing get outsourced by the millions of job to cheaper labor oversees or automated in factories by machines and robotics.

Similarly, agriculture has seen a large decrease in small family-owned farms, in lieu of mega farms run by multinationals and run by automated farm equipment with GPS and drones. 

The military is moving quickly to warfare by drones, robotics, and people geared-up in high-tech exoskeletons. 

Now in the sacrosanct service sector, where it has been said that it could never be done by anyone by local people in the communities, services are moving in the direction of robotics.

 

Perhaps even in government we can ask, can there be a future where robots can govern better than we can–and get things done speedily and efficiently!

In one Sci fi hit after another, from Star Trek to Battlestar Galactica to Terminator, a future of humanity embattled by cyborgs predominates. 

Like in the show, Lost in Space, where the robot in wont to say, “Crush, Kill, Destroy,” perhaps we can understand this as not jsut a physical threat as people’s lives, but also to their ability to earn a living in a world where automation challenges us with the children reframe:

“Everything you can do, I can do better. I can do everything better than you. Yes you can, no you can’t…”

At this point, I am not sure it is really a debate anymore, and that Preston-Werner is predominantly right…technology is the future–whether we are end up being eaten alive by it or are its earthly masters. 😉

Robots Taking Your Job

Don’t get too comfortable in your job.

Yes, the economic realities of high spending are about to catch up with the country and that will threaten your livelihood, but even more than that Robots can probably do your job better than you–sooner or later. 

Wired Magazine (24 December 2012) has a great article on this called “Better Than Humans.

In the 1800’s, when 70% of the working population did agricultural work, probably no one would have believed what the future had in store for this occupation–today with automation, only 1% do this work.

Similarly, today 80% of jobs are in the service sector, and people think they are on safe ground–but think again!

Make no mistake robots will replace or drastically alter your current job, as artificial intelligence, processors, memory, sensors, learning, communication, dexterity, and humanoid likeness all continue to advance.

Wired presents the 7 Stages of Robot Replacement (to which I’ve added my notes in parenthesis):

1. Robots cannot do what I do (denial).

2. Robots can do some of what I do, but not all (partial acceptance).

3. Robots can do what I do, but they break done (rationalization for the loss, and so do we “break down”).

4. Robots operate flawlessly on repetitive tasks, but need training for new ones (you weren’t born knowing everything were you?). 

5. Robots can have my old job, because it’s not fit for humans anyway (acceptance with a large dose of resignation–“the train has left the station”).

6. Robots can have my old job, because my new job will be better (maybe for the time being). 

7. Robots cannot do what I do now (the cycle of employment safety from automation starts anew). 

Let’s face it–your special, but so is technology and the pace of advancement is extraordinary. 

For those of you in jobs that you feel could only be done by humans–Wired has some news about developments with robots doing the once unthinkable:

– Musicians–Georgia Tech has developed Shimon the musician; these robots can not only play violin and trumpets, but they can form a band, and they can improvise (“as if it’s a musician with a soul!).

– Therapists–Mindmentor has an AI therapist that after a 1-2 hour session made patients feel their “problem was 47% solved.”

– Artists–Vagobot has made hundreds of pictures and “even sold some to Crate & Barrel.”

– Comedians–Aldebarab Robotics makes robots for all sorts of jobs, including entertainment–they can sense audience reaction (such as laughter or silence) and adjust topics accordingly.

– Professional Trainers–The Intermational Conference on Social Robots in 2011 presented a robot that could coach you on your exercise, sense your form, and correct it. 

– Teachers–University Of Southern California has developed a robot teacher that in 2 weeks helped preschoolers increase vocabulary mastery by 25%.

– Nurses–Aethon makes the TUG nurse robot that is “picking up and delivering medication and supplies, autonomously navigating hospital hallways…summon an elevator, wait in line, and politely roll aside to give hemorrhaging humans priority access.”

– Athletes–Robocup compete robots that one day can be “capable of winning against the human  soccer World Cup champions.

So what will be left for humans to do–innovate, invent, build, operate, and maintain the next level of breakthrough automation to help people–maybe these are the best and most-rewarding jobs that any of us can hope to have. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal, Ft. Lauderdale Discovery and Science Museum)