This past Labor Day, I couldn’t help but reflect on what I’ve discovered while becoming acquainted with the ‘biotechnology belt’ just north of San Diego, home to a a cluster of approximately 500 companies that are now busy developing some unique innovations in health care, energy and food production. Since my introduction to some of them over the last couple of months I have been rather amazed at the talent and ingenuity to be found in a high-tech enclave whose existence I wasn’t really aware of until quite recently. (Like a lot of people, I had assumed that Silicon Valley was still where all the creative energy was being unleashed.)
But while being dazzled, I couldn’t help but be a bit disturbed as well by the manner in which all this is being accomplished. I’m talking about hundreds of thousands of assays performed in the labs of these various enterprises using no manual labor at all, but instead relying on robots. To observe them in action is to wonder whether the concept of “labor” as we’ve traditionally known it is rapidly becoming obsolete.
Now, I’m not being critical here, mind you, as I realize many of these functions can probably be carried out far more efficiently in this way, to say nothing of more cheaply. And it goes without saying, of course, that robots don’t take sick days, or bathroom or lunch breaks, or have family responsibilities, or form unions (although who knows what might happen if they were to become “smart” enough?). But by minimizing human participation in manufacturing processes, we can’t help but impact the “other end” of the supply chain equation, which, of course, is demand.
A century ago, Henry Ford similarly revolutionized the manufacturing process by creating the first assembly line. But Ford also realized something — that in order to have paying customers for his end products, people had to be put to work in jobs that paid enough to enable them to afford to buy those products. True, Ford’s progressivism had its limits, and he eventually went from being a visionary to being regarded as a stubborn adversary of unions when his competitors were giving them recognition, but his original idea — that an economy had to be balanced in order to function — helped lay the groundwork for many years of prosperity.
So my question is: while today’s entrepreneurs are busy remaking the world yet again, can the robots they now rely on be somehow instrumental in finding new roles for humans in the workplace and keeping them employed and prosperous, so that there will continue to be sufficient customers for the goods, services and technologies their companies produce?
It’s something I’ve been thinking about since visiting those remarkable new facilities outside San Diego. In fact, I’d like for my next “mission” to be coming up with ways that robots might take the lead in creating jobs for large numbers of people, rather than simply becoming their replacements. Stay tuned (and if you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.)
