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Journalist and Author
JOHN F. WASIK
=ROBOTS=
are COMING to
TAKE YOUR JOBS
Here's How to Win
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
5:30 - 8:30 pm
The Lounge at Iwan Ries
19 South Wabash Av.
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John Wasik
is well known to the Cigar
Society for his previous talks on being a "Road
Scholar" for the Illinois Humanities Council; on
Tesla and creativity; on John Maynard Keynes's
personal investment strategies; and, way back at
the Tower Club, on Samuel Insull and Thomas
Edison.
About his most recent book, Winning
in the Robotic Workplace, he writes:
I’ll be blunt: Millions, if not tens
of millions of jobs, are going away due to
automation. It’s not some paranoid
fantasy about robots taking over. It’s
happening now and it's accelerating. In
researching and writing my book, Winning
in the Robotic Workplace, I found
that automation is being integrated into every
industry and is being adopted on a mass scale
from major tech companies to legacy industries
such as warehousing and logistics. Here are
some highlights:
- Some 4 million jobs have already been
lost in manufacturing. And with advances in
machine learning and artificial
intelligence, millions of white-collar jobs
are targeted for elimination. All told, some
73 million jobs could disappear by 2030,
reports the McKinsey Institute.
- No less than three highly respected
studies have predicted that up to half of
the workforce will be automated within the
next 30 years. According to McKinsey, “in
about 60% of occupations, at least one-third
of the constituent activities could be
automated, implying substantial workplace
transformations and changes for all
workers.”
- Moreover, many researchers have not fully
examined the total impact of new
technologies like self-driving vehicles or
automated supply chains, developments that
imperil millions of high-paying blue-collar—and
white collar—jobs.
- Manufacturing and white collar industries
have experienced—and will continue to
experience—massive job reduction due to
automation. Factories that used to employ
tens of thousands of workers now employ only
hundreds. In media, the silent, machine
writing of some one billion press releases
annually and automated reporting has
replaced thousands of jobs.
- Forms and basic back-office services can
be automated. Machines can read, store and
interpret anything from facial images and
documents to X-Rays. Virtually anything on
paper that can be scanned, stored, sorted
and analyzed is part of this new wave of
automation.
What can we do to offset the rise of
the robots? That is what my book is about.
Those who can mix technical knowledge
with a broad range of liberal arts education
will likely fare well. You’ll need to know
history, ethics, science, literature and the
skills to integrate this knowledge to the task
at hand. The humanities give you a broad
perspective and knowledge base.
The skills that need to be taught are already
available in community and four-year colleges.
Even some high- and middle schools are
focusing on “project-based” learning that
focuses on collaboration and communication.
All we need to do is to fully embrace this new
kind of learning, which should build on what
we know in a changing world—and make it a
lifelong project.
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John F. Wasik is a professional
journalist and speaker. He is the author of
18 books and over 1,000 journal articles, in
Forbes, the New York Times,
the Wall Street Journal, Morningstar,
Bloomberg, Reuters, and other
journals. He has written extensively about
business, investing, retirement, and
investor protection. More recently, though,
he says, "Science, technology, and
creativity have stirred my soul." His book
on Nikola Tesla, Lightning Strikes,
explores the intersection between disruptive
technology and what it means to be human.
His most recent book on that theme is Winning
in the Robotic Workplace.
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Book Reviews
Rather than so many neo-Luddite laments, [Wasik's]
book promises to equip us not just to "interface"
with these new AI machines, but rather to direct
them to ends that we desire. The new automation is
truly liberating—and thus not a threat, but an aid
to human flourishing. And this book points in the
direction of the right preparation—a
liberal arts education that needs to be continuing
and lifelong. Liberal education is best for
adults, who can synthesize these new tools with
past experiences, creating new and innovative
ideas.
---Fred W Beuttler, Assoc.
Dean, Graham School of Continuing Liberal and
Professional Studies, University of Chicago
Automation will drastically alter the workplace
of the future. The number of processing jobs will
shrink, but the ability to analyze, interpret, and
think creatively will be even more prized. John
Wasik's insightful book, Winning in the
Robotic Workplace, will help you get
on the winning side of this powerful trend.
---Don Phillips, Managing
Director, Morningstar
Technology has been replacing jobs for over 100
years, but the pace of change today towards
increased automation is alarming. Winning
in the Robotic Workplace is an
essential read if you want to understand who will
win and lose in this new world.
---Travis Briggs, Chief
Executive Officer, ROBO Global
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About
the Cigar
Society of Chicago
ONE OF THE OLDEST
AND greatest traditions of the city clubs of Chicago is
the discussion of intellectual, social, legal, artistic,
historical, scientific, musical, theatrical, and
philosophical issues in the company of educated, bright,
and appropriately provocative individuals, all under the
beneficent influence of substantial amounts of tobacco
and spirits. The Cigar Society of Chicago
embraces this tradition and extends it with its Informal
Smokers, University Series lectures,
and Cigar Society Dinners, in which cigars,
and from time to time pipes and cigarettes, appear as an
important component of our version of the classical
symposium. To be included in the Cigar Society's
mailing list, write to the secretary at
curtis.tuckey@logicophilosophicus.org.
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