Jared Strong

Proposal:
Automation is the use of mechanical equipment in production. During the Industrial
Revolutions of the 1800s many processes began to be automated in factories. This led to the
extinction of certain jobs but it also led to the beginning of many jobs. The current economy has
companies looking into making things more automated. Fast food restaurants are beginning to
install self-serve kiosks as a way to automate the ordering process of food. Self driving trucks
may lead to an automated trucking business. In my Individual Exploratory Project I would like to
look at the affects that automation will have on the economy. This interests me because there
have been many people saying that the new, and the near future, technological advancements
will lead to unemployment increases, but there are others that say it will create the need for new
jobs. I would like to look into the new technologies and their possible effects on the economy.
The question that I will focus on is: will further automation hurt the economy? This question is
not limited by a certain occupations automation which will allow me to look at the economy as a
whole. I will be able to find information on the internet, where several news websites have
constantly updated information about new technologies, and I will be able to formulate an
opinion by researching this topic.

STRONG RESPONSES:
Automation and Anxiety
http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21700758-will-smarter-machines-cause-massunemployment-automation-and-anxiety
Notes on Main Points
The new technological rise is similar to the
Industrial Revolution, but could be different.
New jobs could be created while some are
destroyed.
Technology is beginning to take white-collar
jobs.

Questions
How different is the new technology from the
Industrial Revolution?

The market is becoming more and more automated. Machines are being made that can
accurately read X-rays and can search for cancer and other problems using these graphs. The
ability of these machines to understand these readings may lead to the loss of jobs in the
medical industry. This is the beginning of white-collar jobs being threatened from an economy
based around automation. The economy may become separated into high-skilled jobs and lowskilled jobs that computers and machines cant yet replace. Things like architects and senior
managers, as skilled workers, and things such as cleaners and various areas of construction, as
unskilled workers, will not be replaced in the near future. But things like radiologists, cashiers,
and taxi drivers will lose their jobs. However, in the past technology has always created more
jobs than it destroys. It destroys jobs that machines are able to do but creates jobs in areas that
machines are not able to do, such as operating machinery. Automation often redefines jobs. The
use of machines to find legal documents instead of new lawyers may also create a better legal
system, with all evidence being available to the judge, and it increases the use of many things. It
also discusses how people may need to learn new skills in the changing economy and that
governments may need to make it easier for people to learn these skills.
This report shows that the current automation is not a new thing, but it has been happening
throughout the history of America. The ideas presented are seemingly supported by fact, with
quoting economists and people working on the technology. It also had strengths in using
examples from the Industrial Revolution and the 1960s as support that automation has
happened in the past and it has not resulted in mass unemployment. The article goes through
the jobs that will be lost but then presents the jobs that may be created, giving the hope that we
need to have as we look towards the future. I agree that automation will change the economy,
but it will make things easier and will also create jobs that we could have never imagined.
Polarization of the economy, I believe, wont hurt it much,
"Automation and Anxiety." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 25 June 2016. Web. 30 June
2016.

AI Downs Expert Fighter Pilot in Simulation

http://www.popsci.com/ai-pilot-beats-air-combat-expert-in-dogfight

Notes on Main Points

AI has advanced to the point where it can
beat trained pilots in a dogfight simulation.
AI can work faster and longer than human
pilots.

Questions
Will this be able to be used in a real-life
dogfight?

The article states how the AI shot down an expert, retired US Air Force Battle Manager every
time in a flight simulation which Colonel Gene Geno Lee had used for decades. He was
surprised by how fast it reacted and how it could seemingly predict his movements and
intentions. The AI, ALPHA, was made for research purposes. The AI is able to make complex
decisions 250 times faster than a human can blink. After the battle, Lee said that he felt drained
and tired.
This is a significant change in the defense industry. AI is now beginning to be able to easily beat
humans in things that had previously been seen as some of the hardest things that a human
can do. This may change the face of war, with human fighter pilots no longer being needed and
with all planes being led by AI. This can result in a significant smaller number of deaths from war
in the airspace. It is also significant because fighter pilots get drained after an hour of intense
battle, but AI is not physically capable of being tired. AI can do its processes for as long as it has
power, making humans even more obsolete. This, however, does not mean that humans will be
completely phased out of the air fighting aspect of the military. It will still be necessary for
airplane repairmen and people to create and better these AI programs. Humans will also be
necessary to give master commands to a squadron of these AI-led planes, but the human will
be safe and far away.

McDonald, Coby. "A.I. Downs Expert Human Fighter Pilot In Dogfight Simulation." Popular Science.
Popsci, 27 June 2016. Web. 06 July 2016.

Smart Robots Could Soon Steal Your Job

http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/15/news/economy/smart-robots-stealing-jobs-davos/?iid=EL

Notes on Main Points

Half of all current jobs could be automated by
2020.
Some positions are at low risk, but ones
without much social interaction are at high
risk.

Questions
Will social interaction jobs be replaced?
Will more jobs be created?

According to this article, by 2020 over half of all current jobs in the United States will be at high
risk of being automated by robots, a result from the growth of AI. Another 20% of all jobs will be
at medium risk for automation. The costs of machines and robots are also declining, by about
27% this past decade, leading employers to start to use more and more robots. Taxi drivers,
fishermen, bakers, and fast food cooks are already at high risk for being replaced. There are
some positions, however, that are at a low risk, including photographers, firemen, physicians,
and clergy. Jobs that require social interaction are also at low risk for being replaced.
This leads me to think that although lower-paying jobs will get replaced, it will drive the cost of
many things even lower, including fast food and other manufactured goods. This will allow for
even more free time for people because they no longer need to work as hard in order to get the
money to provide food for their family. Soon farm jobs and most of the food industry could be
automated, meaning food is cheap and plentiful. However, the people that lose their jobs may
need to find new occupations and go to higher-skilled occupations. However, there is a
possibility that soon humans will not need to do much manual work, it will all be replaced. This
will also drive the cost of things down and open up a lot more free time for people to do what
they want throughout their lives. Just like the industrial revolution took people from working on
the farms all day to working hourly wages, the advancements in technology may open up even
more free time for us.

Kottasova, Ivana. "Smart Robots Could Soon Steal Your Job." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 15
Jan. 2016. Web. 04 July 2016.

APM Terminal Automation

Notes on Main Points

Ports are looking into more automation
Will lead to less jobs, but safer conditions and
a faster-moving economy.

Questions
How many jobs will be lost?
Does the benefits outweigh the losses?

As I read that many lower-skilled jobs were going to be lost, I looked for examples.
http://www.joc.com/port-news/terminal-operators/apm-terminals/apmt-pursues-greaterautomation-terminal-operations_20160622.html
This article discusses the needs for automation in the ports where major cargo ships land.
Currently there are problems with congestion during peak shipping hours because of the size of
the ships and the limited abilities of the ports. It says that automating certain processes will
make it go faster in an age where shipping is at an all-time high. Automation will decrease the
risk of injury and congestion and new port designed are being tested with a focus on
automation. However, automation is expensive and some ports are moved depending on trade
agreements, which may be a reason not to automate many ports.
The automation of ports will speed the processes of shipping, which will get products to their
needed places faster, keeping things on schedule. This will help the economy by allowing ships
and their cargo to avoid the congestion that often occurs at ports. This automation also appears
to not remove many jobs, there will still be advisors required at the sites to watch the machines
and operators for the new machinery.

"APM Terminals Ups Ante on Automation." APM Terminals Ups Ante on Automation.
N.p., n.d. Web. 04 July 2016.

Would a Work-Free World be so bad?

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/06/would-a-world-without-work-be-sobad/488711/

Notes on Main Points

People that have depression because of not
having a job could be caused by society.
The future may lead to people having less
work and more fun.

Questions
Is there a possible dystopia future?

The article discusses that some people believe that a work-free world would be a wasteland
where the capital is all held by a small portion of people and the rest are in poverty. It also says
that other people think that a world without work may lead people to not have meaning in their
lives and could leave many people to be depressed and lazy. The article discusses how people
are often depressed if they are unemployed for a period of time because our world today is
centered around work. In a world without work there may not be so much depression because
of the lack of a job. When I come home from a hard days work, I often feel tired, Danaher
says, adding, In a world in which I dont have to work, I might feel rather different. It also
discusses how free-time in our societies can be boring because the world is built around work
and not free time. Also as children we are taught to work instead of play, but in a world without
work we may not have to give up the imagination and the want to play that we have as children.
This article shows two different ways that the world, following the rise of AI, could be run. I see
in it either a wasteland of the poor people dying off, either from depression or from lack of
money, while the rich hold all of the wealth, or one where the governments give people a living
wage. The economy will, however, have to adapt dramatically in order for there to be a nondystopian future.

STRAUSS, ILANA E. "Would a Work-Free World Be So Bad?" The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company,
28 June 2016. Web. 04 July 2016.

Humans Need Not Apply

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU

Notes on Main Points

Humans may lose too many jobs in the
economy, leading to a possible economic
crisis.

Questions
Will humans be completely replaced?
What would a world post-work look like?

In this video, he discusses how the current technologies far exceed those of other eras.
Machines from the industrial revolution required people to run them, current machines can only
do a small, specific number of tasks, but new machines can learn. New AI is able to see and
process the information, and even learn from watching humans. Robot baxter can learn from
watching people, and costs less than a normal person makes in a year. He is the first of a new
technology, much like the old, giant computers. Things dont have to be perfect, they just have
to be better than us. Jobs people never wanted to do anyways, as well as white collar jobs are
both probably going to be replaced. Even professional work, like lawyers, can be replaced.
Creative jobs will not replace the thinking jobs, they are and will be a small part of the economy.
This video showed me the importance of the dangers that current automation, especially
automation that can be done in the next few years, has on the economy. It depicted that this
revolution of technology is different from the rest. The other advancements have never
produced something that can think for itself. All past technologies required human oversight or
operation, but the new technologies can run themselves. As the AI gets smarter and learns even
more there will most likely be robots that can repair other robots. This completely destroys the
need for any human interaction in most processes.

CGPGrey. "Humans Need Not Apply." YouTube. YouTube, 13 Aug. 2014. Web. 30 June 2016.

Draft 1:

Automation through the power of machinery has been happening dramatically

since the Industrial Revolution. Throughout primary school I was taught about the
people of the Industrial Revolution and how new machines took many lower-skilled
labor jobs and the people were required to move to other areas of work. Some of these
jobs included many weavers and cloth workers at the beginning, eventually leading to
new ways to refine iron and steel. I learned how people flocked from the farms to the
cities to work for hourly wages and to maintain and operate the new machinery.
Recently while searching through the internet, I found many articles talking about the
new self-driving car technology. Self-driving vehicles are being researched by
companies like Google and Tesla and may soon be sold to consumers. Amongst this
talk there was a lot of fright about what will happen to the industries like taxi drivers and
truck drivers. This new automation, the automation of driving, will lead to many people
losing their jobs, just like many of the machines led to people losing their jobs in the
Industrial Revolution. This made me ask the question: will further automation hurt the
economy?
I took to the internet to help me answer my question. First, I looked for where
automation is currently coming forward. One area was in the shipping industry,
especially on the ports. With the global economy constantly growing and shipping being
even more important, there is often congestion in the ports from the large loads and not
as efficient ways of dealing with these loads. According to a joc.com article, the
automation of ports will speed the processes of shipping, which will get products to their
needed places faster, keeping things on schedule. This will help the economy by
allowing ships and their cargo to avoid the congestion that often occurs at ports. This
automation also appears to not remove many jobs, there will still be advisors required at
the sites to watch the machines and operators for the new machinery. It will also
address many current safety concerns currently found on ports because humans will no
longer be in the way of things being moved. So although there is a lose of a few jobs, It
appears to me that this will help the economy overall by making things faster and more
efficient. In an economist article titled Automation and Anxiety it talks about how these
new forms of automation are similar to the Industrial Revolution. The article goes
through the jobs that will be lost but then presents the jobs that may be created, giving
the hope that we need to have as we look towards the future. Automation will change
the economy, but it will make things easier and will also create jobs that we could have
never imagined. So to me this means that automation is doing what it is supposed to
and what its always done. But this led me to wonder if there will be too many jobs
destroyed and not enough jobs will be created.
In the Automation and Anxiety, article it says, A computer that dispenses expert
radiology advice is just one example of how jobs currently done by highly trained whitecollar workers can be automated, thanks to the advance of deep learning and other

forms of artificial intelligence. (p. 3). This shows that this time may actually be different
from the times of the industrial revolution. These new machines, like my example with
the new self-driving cars, are becoming smarter. In the article, A.I. Downs Expert
Human Fighter Pilot in Dogfight Simulation, it talks about how the new machine
thinking technology is able to beat a trained dogfight pilot. This further explains to me
the new dangers of this new wave of automation. This may lead to even human pilots
being replaced, changing the defense industry. Although humans will still be needed to
lead the AI-led planes, there is a significant less amount of people that will need to be
employed. This may hurt the economy by causing more unemployment in even more
regions. This wave of automation appears to be different because of the huge number
of jobs that are being able to be replaced. I began talking to my friend about my
question and he led me to the video Humans Need Not Apply. This video showed me
the importance of the dangers that current automation, especially automation that can
be done in the next few years, has on the economy. It depicted that this revolution of
technology is different from the rest. The other advancements have never produced
something that can think for itself. All past technologies required human oversight or
operation, but the new technologies can run themselves. As the AI gets smarter and
learns even more there will most likely be robots that can repair other robots. This
completely destroys the need for any human interaction in most processes.
With this I started to ask, What a world without work would look like? Much of
todays society, capitalism especially, revolves around people doing work to make
money. I started a search for some ideas and came across an article on the atlantic
titled Would a Work-Free World be so bad?. This article shows two different ways that
the world, following the rise of AI, could be run. I see in it either a wasteland of the poor
people dying off, either from depression or from lack of money, while the rich hold all of
the wealth, or one where the governments give people a living wage. This article
discusses how society, and the economy, will need to change to focus less on work and
more on fun and play. Without needing to do much work, there will not be many jobs
available throughout the world, and people often feel the need to work in order to be
satisfied with their lives. If we, as a society, were to change to not put as much
emphasis on work, but more emphasis on doing things we enjoyed, people could still
find meaning in a world without jobs. However, I can not see this being a possible
future, at least until society changes. So what will happen once the wealth gets
polarized? I went to discuss this with my friend, who has worked on many robotics
projects and done research on this subject. We decided that in this possible future, one
where the rich hold all the money and the poor have nothing, that eventually the poor
will all die out, leaving the rich in the world. This is almost a type of natural selection,
where the people more adapted to survival, the rich, will survive while the rest die off.
Throughout my journey through this subject, I have been taken from the idea that
this AI revolution is much like the Industrial Revolution to realizing that it is a completely
different subject. The Industrial Revolution saw the rise of machines that created more

jobs, as operators and repairmen, but the new rise of AI may lead to many jobs being
destroyed and, although some jobs are bound to be created, there will most likely not be
a way for the economy to return to how it has always been. A world without work, a
world where money is polarized, and a world where technology does anything, will be a
very different world than the one that we have known throughout the past hundreds of
years.

Sources:
"APM Terminals Ups Ante on Automation." APM Terminals Ups Ante on Automation.
N.p., n.d. Web. 04 July 2016.
"Automation and Anxiety." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 25 June 2016.
Web. 30 June 2016.
CGPGrey. "Humans Need Not Apply." YouTube. YouTube, 13 Aug. 2014. Web. 30 June
2016.
Kottasova, Ivana. "Smart Robots Could Soon Steal Your Job." CNNMoney. Cable News
Network, 15 Jan. 2016. Web. 04 July 2016.
STRAUSS, ILANA E. "Would a Work-Free World Be So Bad?" The Atlantic. Atlantic
Media Company, 28 June 2016. Web. 04 July 2016.

Draft 2:
Automation through the power of machinery has been happening dramatically
since the Industrial Revolution. Throughout primary school I was taught about the
people of the Industrial Revolution and how new machines took many lower-skilled
labor jobs and the people were required to move to other areas of work. Some of these
jobs included many weavers and cloth workers at the beginning, eventually leading to
new ways to refine iron and steel. I learned how people flocked from the farms to the
cities to work for hourly wages and to maintain and operate the new machinery.
Recently while searching through the internet, I found many articles talking about the
new self-driving car technology. Self-driving vehicles are being researched by
companies like Google and Tesla and may soon be sold to consumers. Amongst this
talk there was a lot of fright about what will happen to the industries like taxi drivers and
truck drivers. This new automation, the automation of driving, will lead to many people
losing their jobs, just like many of the machines led to people losing their jobs in the
Industrial Revolution. This made me ask the question: will further automation hurt the
economy?
I took to the internet to help me answer my question. First, I looked for where
automation is currently coming forward. One area was in the shipping industry,
especially on the ports. With the global economy constantly growing and shipping being
even more important, there is often congestion in the ports from the large loads and not
as efficient ways of dealing with these loads. According to a joc.com 2016 article, the
automation of ports will speed the processes of shipping, which will get products to their
needed places faster, keeping things on schedule. This will help the economy by
allowing ships and their cargo to avoid the congestion that often occurs at ports. This
automation also appears to not remove many jobs, there will still be advisors required at
the sites to watch the machines and operators for the new machinery. It will also
address many current safety concerns currently found on ports because humans will no
longer be in the way of things being moved. So although there is a lose of a few jobs, It
appears to me that this will help the economy overall by making things faster and more
efficient. In an economist article titled Automation and Anxiety it talks about how these
new forms of automation are similar to the Industrial Revolution. The article goes
through the jobs that will be lost but then presents the jobs that may be created, giving
the hope that we need to have as we look towards the future. Automation will change
the economy, but it will make things easier and will also create jobs that we could have
never imagined. So to me this means that automation is doing what it is supposed to
and what its always done. But this led me to wonder if there will be too many jobs
destroyed and not enough jobs will be created.
In the Automation and Anxiety, article it says, A computer that dispenses expert
radiology advice is just one example of how jobs currently done by highly trained whitecollar workers can be automated, thanks to the advance of deep learning and other

forms of artificial intelligence. (The Economist, 2016, p. 3). This shows that this time
may actually be different from the times of the industrial revolution. These new
machines, like my example with the new self-driving cars, are becoming smarter. In the
article, A.I. Downs Expert Human Fighter Pilot in Dogfight Simulation (McDonald,
2016), it talks about how the new machine thinking technology is able to beat a trained
dogfight pilot. This further explains to me the new dangers of this new wave of
automation. This may lead to even human pilots being replaced, changing the defense
industry. Although humans will still be needed to lead the AI-led planes, there is a
significant less amount of people that will need to be employed. This may hurt the
economy by causing more unemployment in even more regions. This wave of
automation appears to be different because of the huge number of jobs that are being
able to be replaced. I began talking to my friend about my question and he led me to the
video Humans Need Not Apply. (CGPGrey, 2016). This video showed me the
importance of the dangers that current automation, especially automation that can be
done in the next few years, has on the economy. It depicted that this revolution of
technology is different from the rest. The other advancements have never produced
something that can think for itself. All past technologies required human oversight or
operation, but the new technologies can run themselves. As the AI gets smarter and
learns even more there will most likely be robots that can repair other robots. This
completely destroys the need for any human interaction in most processes.
With this I started to ask, What a world without work would look like? Much of
todays society, capitalism especially, revolves around people doing work to make
money. I started a search for some ideas and came across an article on the atlantic
titled Would a Work-Free World be so bad? (Strauss, 2016). In this article, Ilana
Strauss shows two different ways that the world, following the rise of AI, could be run. I
see in it either a wasteland of the poor people dying off, either from depression or from
lack of money, while the rich hold all of the wealth, or one where the governments give
people a living wage. This article discusses how society, and the economy, will need to
change to focus less on work and more on fun and play. Without needing to do much
work, there will not be many jobs available throughout the world, and people often feel
the need to work in order to be satisfied with their lives. If we, as a society, were to
change to not put as much emphasis on work, but more emphasis on doing things we
enjoyed, people could still find meaning in a world without jobs. However, I can not see
this being a possible future, at least until society changes. So what will happen once the
wealth gets polarized? I went to discuss this with my friend, who has worked on many
robotics projects and done research on this subject. We decided that in this possible
future, one where the rich hold all the money and the poor have nothing, that eventually
the poor will all die out, leaving the rich in the world. This is almost a type of natural
selection, where the people more adapted to survival, the rich, will survive while the rest
die off.

Throughout my journey through this subject, I have been taken from the idea that
this AI revolution is much like the Industrial Revolution to realizing that it is a completely
different subject. The Industrial Revolution saw the rise of machines that created more
jobs, as operators and repairmen, but the new rise of AI may lead to many jobs being
destroyed and, although some jobs are bound to be created, there will most likely not be
a way for the economy to return to how it has always been. A world without work, a
world where money is polarized, and a world where technology does anything, will be a
very different world than the one that we have known throughout the past hundreds of
years.

Sources:
"APM Terminals Ups Ante on Automation." APM Terminals Ups Ante on Automation.
N.p., n.d. Web. 04 July 2016.
"Automation and Anxiety." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 25 June 2016.
Web. 30 June 2016.
CGPGrey. "Humans Need Not Apply." YouTube. YouTube, 13 Aug. 2014. Web. 30 June
2016.
Kottasova, Ivana. "Smart Robots Could Soon Steal Your Job." CNNMoney. Cable News
Network, 15 Jan. 2016. Web. 04 July 2016.
McDonald, Coby. "A.I. Downs Expert Human Fighter Pilot In Dogfight Simulation."
Popular
Science. Popsci, 27 June 2016. Web. 06 July 2016.
Strauss, Ilana E. "Would a Work-Free World Be So Bad?" The Atlantic. Atlantic
Media Company, 28 June 2016. Web. 04 July 2016.