EG Dad has been at me for a while now, about my lack of preparation for the “Rise of the Machines”. In particular, Artificial Intelligence (AI).

It all started with the ‘super robot’ who said it will keep its friendly human creators in a “People Zoo”. Seriously creepy – but it has ended up being a hashtag for EG Dad whenever something freaks him out about AI.

Now, EG Dad is not some guy who is afraid of technology – hell no! EG Dad is our Tech Fanatic! He is the IT professional, the product manager, the app developer, the engineer. He is the one dragging me into the 21^st century with books on the iPad (it doesn’t smell the same).

And yet he is also the one keeping a close eye on industry developments which will impact the future of our spawnlings. This is a genuine, real-time problem. The stats are predicting 40% of current jobs will be “lost” to automation. That’s a whole bunch of current students studying and training for jobs that may not even exist in the next five years.

Why is this a problem? Because if I am going to take over the world, I want an army of human minions and society I can control, manipulate, and motivate. Believe me, when I say AI is much harder to work with. There is a very good reason why scientists are saying “NOPE” to AI.

So what are we going to do? Where do we go from here? (cue Buffy musical episode)

As a society, we need some visionary leadership. We need some creativity. We need some optimism; 40% of the current jobs may be lost, so let’s look at what kind of jobs could replace them. What opportunities can we find to challenge this pessimistic outlook? But at the same time, we need to have a very real, very pragmatic discussion about this. We cannot just sit back and expect our spawnlings to simply jump into the future and land on two feet. We, the EG Parents, need to think about this now; we need to discuss this with them NOW.

This is the kind of topic that can’t be covered in just one post; It is too complex and all-encompassing for our future planning and world domination. So I’m making it a new regular post – If I Ran The People Zoo

Each week (edit: okay, infrequently…), I plan to address an issue regarding job development and future opportunities for the next generation – The Spawnlings. First up next week, I’ll address the biggest question: What Jobs Can Minions Do Better Than Machines and Computers?

(spoiler – it’s likely fewer than you think)

Comment below or on Facebook if you have any suggestions.

#ifiranthepeoplezoo