Technology And The Future Of Work Essay — страница 5

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products and services require less workers to produce and operate, and certainly will not counteract those made redundant through obsolete trades and professions. Direct global marketing by way of the ?Superhighway’ the ?Internet’ and other forms of instant telecommunications is making thousands of middle marketing employees obsolete. For example the SA bank introduced phone banking some while ago, they now are the first bank in South Australia to trade on the Internet (http://www.banksa.com.au), and many rural banks are closing. Also, it has just been announced by the electoral commission that voting by telephone will be trialed next year, with enormous potential job loss. The widely publicised information superhighway brings a range of products, information and services

direct to the consumer, bypassing traditional channels of distribution and transportation. The numbers of new technical jobs created will not compare with the millions whose jobs will become irrelevant and redundant in the retail sectors. Jones (1990) notes that there is a coy reticence from those who believe that social structure and economics will continue as in the past, to identify the mysterious new labour absorbing industry that will arise in the future to prevent massive unemployment. Jones believes that industry ?X’ if it does appear, will not be based on conventional economic wisdom but is likely to be in areas where technology will have little application, he suggests it may be in service based areas such as education, home based industry, leisure and tourism. Despite

Barry Jones predictions, most service industries are very much affected by new technology. Education is fast becoming resource based with students in primary, secondary, technical and tertiary levels expected to do their own research and projects independent of class teachers with schools being networked and teaching through video conferencing. The conventional teacher is fast becoming obsolete, with the number of permanent teachers reducing, There are numerous examples of workers in service industries being displaced by technology. Shop fronts such as banking, real estate, travel and many more, are disappearing. Small retail food outlets continue to collapse, with the growth of supermarkets and food chains organised around computer technology, and on- line shopping from home.

Designers of all types are being superseded by CAD computer design software. Even completely automated home computerised services such as a hardware and software package called “Jeeves” is now available. Business management and company directors are finding voice activated lap top computer secretaries far more reliable and efficient than the human form. The New Zealand Minister for Information and Technology, Hon. Maurice Williamson MP, wrote the foreword for the paper ?How Information Technology will change New Zealand’: On the threshold of the twenty first century we are entering a period of change as far reaching as any we have ever seen. Since the industrial revolution people have had to locate themselves in large centres where they could work with others, but now new

technologies are rendering distance unimportant. The skills that are needed in tomorrow’s society will be those associated with information and knowledge rather than the industrial skills of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Changing technology will affect almost every aspect of our lives: how we do our jobs; how we educate our children; how we communicate with each other and how we are entertained. As Williamson points out, with the explosion of technologies , it is easy to lose sight of the larger patterns that underlie them. If we look at the fundamental ways people live, learn and work, we may gain insights about everyday life. These insights are the basis for new technologies and new products that are making an enormous difference in people’s lives. Stepping back

from the day-to-day research for new electronic devices, life can be seen as being fundamentally transformed. There is development of a networked society; a pattern of digital connections that is global, unprecedented, vital, and exciting in the way that it propels the opportunities for entirely new markets and leisure. As people make digital technology an integral part of the way they live, learn, work and play, they are joining a global electronic network that has the potential for reshaping many of our lives in the coming decade. In the future, technologies will play an even greater role in changing the way people live, learn, work and play, creating a global society where we live more comfortably; with cellular phones and other appliances that obey voice commands;