I consider myself a technophile; Understanding and using technology keeps a roof over my head and food on the table. And what an exciting ride the latter part of the 20th century has been for technology!
Even as far back as 100 years ago, there have always been established businesses (such as buggy-whip makers) in the position to be made obsolete by the latest cutting-edge technologies (like the automobile). The technologist's attitude has always been something like: "Luddites! Get with the times and stop worrying so much. When a door closes, a widow opens, if you pay attention and learn your binary math, like the rest of us.
If you are a farmer and the harvester is invented, learn to fix tractors instead. If you are a travel agent and the Internet now lets everyone book their own travel, learn to sell websites or SEO. If you are a clerk, and QuickBooks is invented, learn Business Intelligence. If you are a weather observer, and equipment takes your job, learn to support software for a living. Work your way back up from the bottom if you have to (again, this type of thing has been the mantra of all of us who don't want to be accused of yelling "who moved my cheese!")
There have always been people warning that robots and AI will eventually put the vast majority of blue collar workers out of a job. I avoided worrying about this because 1) that's a long way off 2) hopefully we can evolve as a society before this happens, where money isn't needed (you know, like in Star Trek) 3) technology has a lot to give humankind before it takes it all away, if that ever happens.
But the truth now is: 1) if they have self-driving cars on the streets RIGHT NOW, and "big dog" and bipedal robots that can carry hundreds of pounds effortlessly, then maybe it isn't so far off!
2) the past 25 years had the biggest increase in worker productivity in history, due to computers and other technologies. Has this resulted in any type of societal shift, where mankind as a whole realizes there is enough food and wealth to go around, and the most important thing in the world is he contribution you can leave for all of mankind? NO.
In fact:
3) Technology may still be giving mankind a lot, but it seems that not all are in the position to catch these blessings as they fall from the sky. The proof is in the pudding, and the aforementioned record-breaking productivity has resulted in:
3) Technology may still be giving mankind a lot, but it seems that not all are in the position to catch these blessings as they fall from the sky. The proof is in the pudding, and the aforementioned record-breaking productivity has resulted in:
1. Record-breaking profits for companies (especially really big ones)
2. Record-breaking layoffs for workers
3. Record-breaking hoarding of cash by multinational corporations in offshore shell corporations to protect from taxes. Panama Papers, just broke 3 days ago.
4. Record-breaking unemployment and under-employment for regular people
5. Record-breaking numbers of people signing up for government assistance
6. The decimation of the middle-class
7. The postponement of the American Dream for many while their salaries effectively stagnated for a decade.
8. Instead of society evolving, we actually seem to be getting worse. It's a presidential election year, and neither side of the political spectrum can stand their own candidates, much less the other side's.
9. Greed, corruption, graft, Machiavellism, etc. rules the day. Don't get me started on how close Donald Trump has come to running the whole thing literally (and the fat lady hasn't sung on that yet)!
If this is what somehow, eventually leads up to a Star-Trek utopia where people get to follow their passions I stead of following a carrot on a stick their whole lives, I'm not seeing it. And they haven't even invented a free-walking robot that fools people in the same room into thinking that they are real people yet.
But maybe it isn't technology we should fear, but what mankind does with technology.
