Digital disruption brings a great deal of change into the workforce. Being young and well educated does not count anymore. This is according to Craig Wing, partner at Future World, who will be presenting a keynote address at the ITWeb's Digital Economy Summit in October.
"We are hurtling head first into a future where in 20 short years, the global population will grow from 7.2 billion in 2015 to 9 billion and life expectancy is expected to soar from 80.2 years to over 120. Already today, Carnegie Melon researchers have 3D bioprinted a human heart. In this new world, our life expectancy is governed only by the longevity of our brains or of direct human intervention - if you think that's absurd, remember the first heart transplant was performed by our own Dr Chris Barnard 50 years ago," said Wing.
"Futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts by as soon as 2045 we will reach the singularity - where man and machine meld and our consciousness could be uploaded into a new body - not dissimilar to the Matrix plotlines some of you may fondly remember. Unlike the Hollywood blockbusters, it won't necessarily be us AGAINST the machine, but us AND the machine. Biomechanical implants are already feasible where attached artificial limbs move without anything more than a simple thought - consciously or otherwise," he continued.
Digital disruption will come with many changes, says Wing. He said in this "soon-to-be world", drones compete with autonomous vehicles for transport rights; energy creation is decentralised into neighbourhood micro plants of self-generation; product creation is limited only by your imagination. It will no longer be a question of if you will buy a 3D printer, but rather in which room will you put the 3D printer.
"Returning to 2016, there is an increasingly aging populace with longer careers, population swells, mass urbanisation and globalisation with India and China accounting for 40% of the world's graduates by 2020. The pool of highly skilled employees has increased and as you compete on a global stage, online micro job platforms like Mechanical Turk, Fiverr, Jobber, are already making borders and the physical location of knowledge and innovation workers irrelevant," continues Wing.
"The perfect storm is brewing with the impact of artificial intelligence and the IOT. Every device is connected and able to make predictive analysis of next steps to make your careers even harder - possibly even obsolete. Pattern recognition will make general doctors irrelevant; the law profession and architects are under pressure from micro jobbing and accountants can be replaced by software," he elaborates.
Already today there are now qualifications for technical roles such as virtual drone operator, augmented reality debugger, 3D organic material technician, and space travel quality assurance, he states.
"Over 30% of the jobs that existed 10 years ago do not even exist today. The 2016 graduating engineers - some of the knowledge they have obtained may not be applicable in this short 10-year timeframe. The skills to land you the dream job today are the same skills to make you obsolete to technology tomorrow," points out Wing.
According to Wing, in order to survive the future workforce one will need to nurture the attributes that machines are not yet able to replicate: creativity and innovation, risk tolerance, quantum relationships and "humanness".
"It is this final characteristic: innate humanness, or as we affectionately know it in South Africa: 'Ubuntu'. We must regain this as it will set you apart as citizens of a globally connected world, and as in that beloved quantum physics principle of Schr"odinger's cat: you cannot be part of society and not influence it at the same time," says Wing.
"It's a world of exponential opportunities for those awake, energetic, and relevant! Embrace the change and make a real difference. Remember: You at not entitled to anything: rather the world is entitled to, more appropriately, in need of your abilities, genius and humanness. Success isn't just what you accomplish, but what your work inspires others to do," concludes Wing.
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