The robot in the window seat

摘要

Almost a hundred years ago, Czech writer Karel Capek introduced the world to robots in his novel "R.U.R." (Capek, 2004). Since then, the world has traveled back and forth between fear of The Terminator and wry laughter at R2D2. With each new technology breakthrough, futurists and commentators have speculated about a world in which human workers would become marginalized and put out to pasture. Regardless of what phase we are actually in today, there has never been more hysteria about the "end of work" than there has been in the past two years. The McKinsey Institute has weighed in heavily, claiming that within the next five years 60 per cent of jobs could become 30 per cent automated (McKinsey Global Institute, 2016). Not to be outdone, Deloitte teamed with MIT to declare that 70 per cent of CEOs believe they will need a new or different talent base to compete in the future (Schwartz et al., 2017). The year's calendar is bulging with conferences and summits about the "Future of Work" and "The People Imperative".