Start Up: Catch the Automation Wave, or risk drowning

“I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”
—Wayne Gretzky

I was talking with my 12-year-old daughter the other day about what she wants to do when she grows up. It’s the kind of conversation parents have been having with their children for many generations.

But in today’s world, this question has far deeper ramifications. That’s because a new technological wave is building on the horizon that will change the way we look at jobs, employment and the economy in general.

I told her she better plan on doing something in terms of computers and automation, or something truly creative. That’s because chances are over the next couple of decades, computers and robots will advance to the point that they will be able to take over a majority of the jobs humans do today. If you aren’t being creative, or if you aren’t involved in automation, you will likely be headed for an uncertain future.

Technology has affected labor markets for more than two hundred years. In the past, human workers displaced by machines have been able to find other jobs.

But that has changed.

We are entering the Age of Automation, where computers and robots are displacing human workers faster than we can create new jobs for people. The technology is growing at a exponential pace, with each new breakthrough giving birth to even more breakthroughs.

Think about it. Nevada became the first state to legalize on-road test of self-driving cars four years ago, and cars companies are poised to roll out this technology to the public in the next couple of years. Many people who perceive this phenomenon as a novelty fail to see the implications for the future.

Think Uber. This company has garnered a huge amount of attention for its ride-sharing service that is taking on the entrenched taxi industry.

But the real killer play here is that Uber is positioning itself for the day when it can field fleets of driverless cars. No drivers means more profits. Uber isn’t just aiming at the occasional taxi ride, but can conceivably offer a service that makes it less expensive and more convenient to hail an Uber than it is to own your own car, especially in large cities where traffic and parking are big problems.

Also think 3D printing. Back in the 1980s, the show “Star Trek, The Next Generation” introduced the Replicator, a computer that can basically make anything you ask of it, from a guitar to a perfectly cooked ribeye steak. Seemed far-fetched at the time, but now, 3D printing technology is closing in on this vision in a way that will totally change manufacturing as we know it.

The world is moving toward automation at a very fast pace. The financial crisis of 2008 forced many employers to lay off large numbers of their employees. But since then, many of these companies found ways to operate with fewer workers, through the use of improved information technology and automated systems. With corporate profits at record highs and low interest rates, these companies have huge incentives to invest heavily in automation.

It’s not just that the technology is getting better. It’s also getting much, much cheaper. Just as free, open-source software propelled the fast adoption of the Internet, there is now free, open-source software available for robots. The same technology that makes Microsoft Kinect gaming system work also makes it very easy and cheap to give robots the 3D vision they need to navigate the world like humans do.

With jobs under this kind of threat, it gives would-be entrepreneurs even more incentive to create their own futures instead of depending on someone else’s company for employment. If you are going to be the Wayne Gretzky of the business world, you will want to skate towards the robots, not away. You can either look for ways to catch a ride on this wave of automation, or risk drowning.

Kirk Caraway is the founder of Carson Now, and a Premier Partner with the Adams Hub for Innovation.

Start-Up! is weekly column on entrepreneurship, start-ups, technology and innovation, powered by the Adams Hub for Innovation.