The future of work between men and robots

In 1995, Jeremy Rifkin published the book titled “The end of work”. The theory supported by this important economist was as follows: the third Industrial Revolution, which introduced a great computing power for computers, would lead to great unemployment, especially in the tertiary sector, that is to say in those companies where the services are produced.

 

It has been more than twenty year since the publication of that book and not only is the work unfinished, but the advanced tertiary sector has further developed on the push of digital. Making predictions about the impact that technological innovation has on society, on economy and on the people is always very difficult and one of the reasons  for this difficulty lies in the speed with which technology evolves.

 

Today we are experiencing a new transition. With the digitisation of the economy, the road has been opened to the fourth Industrial Revolution and the concern about the effects it will have on employment. Will robots, artificial intelligence, IoT, algorithms replace man at work? This is one of the questions that repeats most frequently not only among professionals. We are facing a world of change where everything is under discussion to the point that more than a few analysts have spoken of “anthropological leap“. In such a context,  the topic of work monopolizes the debate because it is from there that social identity and being realized citizens pass through.

 

Luca De Biase‘s new book, head of “Novà24”, insert of “Sole24ore”, entitled “Il futuro del lavoro” (The future of Work), (code editions), tries to reduce the fog on the subject. According to De Biase, we are confronted by a great discontinuity with respect to the past. In the Italy of the immediate aftermath of war, the transition from agriculture to factories was linear, millions of people changed jobs and lifestyles, but they knew where the new jobs were and what awaited them. In the fourth Industrial Revolution, on the other hand, the speed of innovation makes it difficult to imagine new scenarios and how the economy of the future will be like. Today’s uncertainty therefore grows out of the lack of a certain perspective. And because people don’t know where to go, they don’t even know how to prepare for the future.

 

Luca De Biase and Giampaolo Colletti, from “Nòva24”, “Repubblica”, “Millionarie”, “Metro” and “Che Futuro”, will discuss the future of their work at the Glocal Festival. The event takes place at Santuccio theatre, on Thursday 8 November at 5 PM.

 

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