There is a real risk of a chasm into which our modern blacksmiths and coal miners might fall

RESIDENCY

Following reading How to fix the future by Andrew Keen I am on the brink of applying to be an e-Resident of Estonia because for EUR 100 I am interested to see what it might be like to live on-line in a country with no borders and the e-government and services that has been promised in Jersey, but never quite materialised.

https://medium.com/e-residency-blog/who-are-estonias-e-residents-f8c2ba2bee3d

It may of course be just like living in Facebook-land. If that’s the case then is probably isn’t for me. A place of style and no substance where friends, followers and fake news is traded for your data, privacy and freedom with the aim to get a bigger (or exclusive) slice of your wallet.

It is interesting to think of borderless residency. It is an oxymoron since our avatar or cyber-self may live an ethereal existence but the material me needs food, drink and boarders in the form of roof over my head: Home.

HOME

So as a member of a global village I can be a resident of cyberspace, but my home is where I lay my head and raise my family.

Setting aside the tax residencies of the four horsemen of the privacy apocalypse (Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon) for future comment, the idea of home is important since Jersey can only legislate, educate and prepare at home for what happens elsewhere.

I am therefore interested in Barclays AI Frenzy Launch Event 12 July 2018, but bemused that in 2018 Jersey’s most sought-after skills for the future are for Microsoft, Navision and AS400 and ostensibly a skill set demanded by a finance industry which “continues decline” (Jersey Evening Post pg2 5/7/2018)

https://www.digital.je/digital-skills-strategy/

This skills strategy is wrong thinking. With some notable and brilliant exceptions our Island trains people to be consumers. Read Brave New World [Aldus Huxley] if you want to know how that works out.

I fear people risk becoming well paid automaton who crave celebrity and consume fake news and amass followers and friends in pursuit of identity and purpose.

I can’t believe Jersey’s current ambition for the future is to have more people who can use Microsoft, Navision and AS400. I doubt that it is the same ambition for Estonia, Singapore or China.

Having read The Road to Somewhere [David Goodhart], I have previously blogged that we put students on a university conveyor belt to turn-out well-paid office workers (note1) with degrees and expertise whose jobs comprise forms, meetings and data-entry.

Karl Marx and George Orwell would be alarmed to see the bourgeois hipster become the white-collar proletariat of the global economy, which hosted in the cloud is fast becoming a deity more powerful than all the others, commanding how we live our lives.

FAMILY

In his excellent sequel to Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari suggests in Homo Deus that the care you receive in your twilight years will probably not come from your estranged family but instead a foreign worker with education and values that are more practical and caring than those currently valued and rewarded.

When our banking, insurance, legal profession and businesses are run using AI there won’t be a need for us to input into Microsoft, Navision and AS400. The simplistic argument that mechanisation, automation and technology create more opportunities simply wasn’t true for blacksmiths and coal miners, the transformation came from a new generation not labourers who suddenly found an outlet for their dormant engineering skills. So, what will we do, and are we ready?

Now is the time to re-think being human, whilst we contemplate AI. Perhaps before we debate the opportunities and role for AI we might consider what role and purpose do we want for ourselves.

COMMUNITY

I anticipate government will shrink and business will grow. Even within Jersey we are seeing the downsize of the public-sector and the outsource or discontinuation of services.

I have previously argued that it would make sense to rationalise and streamline before downsizing. Losing jobs without having first implemented the technology or change that might replace them seems ill considered. However, the change whether well-orchestrated or badly executed is inevitable.

I believe the voluntary and charity sector will become more important than ever to bridge the growing gap between social need, government capacity and business profitability.

There is a real risk of a social chasm into which our modern blacksmiths and coal miners might fall and it is fear of this that fuels Trump, Brexit and protectionism.

As we contemplate the long-term impact of AI perhaps we should also consider the closer implications of a public-sector which is 10% smaller (700 people?) or a finance industry which has fallen 30% since 2007. It is simply daft to repurpose these people as experts in Microsoft, Navision and AS400, technology which was new in 1980s.

Feedback and comments always welcome

#jersey #egov #blockchain #regulation #socialchange

NOTES

Note1 Average employment costs £70k in Finance Sector. Average bonus £6500 Jersey Evening Post pg2 5/7/2018

REFERENCE

How to fix the future [Andrew Keen]
https://www.amazon.com/How-Fix-Future-Andrew-Keen/dp/0802126642

OTHER READING

Five things to make a difference to our Digital Future
https://medium.com/@timhjrogers/five-things-to-make-a-difference-to-our-digital-future-361f3c73a868

Jersey’s Digital balance between Opportunity and Trust
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/jerseys-digital-balance-between-opportunity-trust-tim-hj-rogers/

Artificial Intelligence: the impact on employment and the workforce
https://medium.com/@gkrasadakis/artificial-intelligence-3c6d80072416

Barclays AI Frenzy Launch Event 12 July 2018
https://www.digital.je/news-events/digital-events/barclays-ai-frenzy-launch-event/

AUTHOR

TimHJRogers
@TimHJRogers @AdaptCCompany +447797762051
https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhjrogers/
http://www.timhjrogers.com/